Fraudsters are lurking on last-minute bookers on travel portals!

Be careful when booking a trip at short notice!

For many people, summer vacation is just around the corner. Many people want to travel, especially after the many restrictions of the past few years. Last year, 58.6 billion euros were spent on vacation in Germany alone. According to initial estimates, the travel market will set new records again in 2023. But those who make last-minute decisions should be particularly careful right now. Scammers are out and about and want to ruin the time out of last-minute bookers. ESET explains the criminals' current scams and gives tips on what Internet users should pay attention to when booking travel.

“The tourism market is booming this year. Fraudsters and cybercriminals are also aware of this and want to exploit it for their own purposes,” explains Christian Lueg, IT security expert at ESET. “When it comes to fabulous holiday bargains, travelers should generally look closely. This year there are also many fraudsters on online booking portals who want to trick interested parties into paying for accommodation outside of the platform. Internet users should be particularly careful here.”

Payment outside the platform

Almost half of all holidaymakers book their trip online. Services such as Booking or Airbnb are particularly popular with individual tourists. Internet users often spend hours searching for their dream accommodation. The photos look amazing and everything seems just perfect.

When contacting the host, the host wants to encourage the interested party to communicate outside of the online service provider. Payment should not be made via the platform either. At that point at the latest, alarm bells should start ringing. No matter how good the accommodation looks, the risk of falling for a scam is enormous. If the interested party does not pay through the service provider, all of the provider's protective functions are nullified. Even platforms like Airbnb warn against such scams and ask customers to report such hosts immediately.

Vacation phishing tricks

Criminals also try to sell travel bargains to people via email or social networks. Those looking for relaxation end up on supposedly credible websites that offer package tours, flights or accommodation. For example, unsuspecting users book a package holiday or a hotel and then provide sensitive information such as credit card details. The dizziness is often only discovered when you start your journey if the flight ticket is wrong or the hotel room is not reserved.

Five tips for safe holiday booking

• Check bargain offers carefully: If the offer for a dream accommodation sounds too good to be true, you better be on your guard. Check the provider or host and also the reviews from other holidaymakers. If in doubt, it's better to keep looking.
• Personal data only for encrypted websites: If the website visited does not have “TLS/SSL encryption”, i.e. no “https” at the beginning of the address line, internet users should not enter any personal information or credit card details.‌
• No payments through the travel portal: After a long search, you have finally been able to find accommodation via a travel portal. Instead of processing the payment through the service provider and their platform, does the landlord require payment to them directly? You should exercise caution here because it could be a scammer. In the event of damage, the travel portal cannot help you and you are stuck with the costs.‌
• Keep software up to date: The operating system and installed apps should be up to date. This prevents the exploitation of known security holes.
• Use security software: A modern security solution reliably repels pests and also offers comprehensive spam protection. Fake advertising emails or booking portals are detected early and potential dangers are avoided.

Source:

ESET

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