If you like booking your holidays via booking platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com or TripAdvisor, you should be careful. A perfidious scam is out to steal your sensitive data.
An increasing number of travellers prefer to stay in individual accommodation for their holidays and decide to book a private home rather than a hotel room. Some popular booking platforms for this type of accommodation are Airbnb, Booking.com or TripAdvisor.
Recently, criminals have been out to steal sensitive data from customers of such platforms, proceeding as follows: After booking an accommodation, guests will receive an e-mail or text asking them to check their credit card details once again since there is an apparent problem, or to provide definitive confirmation of their booking. Such e-mails or texts are actually sent by booking platforms in the name of the accommodation booked. Scammers have taken over their account beforehand though and can now send out any kind of messages they want. Since the booking data quoted are also correct, this usually ensures recipients trust the contents of such notifications.
The link contained in these e-mails or texts though leads to a deceptively realistic-looking phishing website instead of the booking platform one. Many recipients don’t scrutinise such links properly and click on them, since the notification they received seems legitimate. The phishing website shows their correct data and is very similar in design to the proper one. But if you enter your credit card details here, this will quickly result in unexpected debits on your card.
Please note the following recommendations:
- Only ever use payment options offered by the booking platform itself. Should you receive any notifications that there are any problems after booking, contact the booking platform customer service or the accommodation booked itself by telephone.
- Be careful if you are being asked to make payments outside the booking platform.
- Activate two-factor authentification protection: This will add another level of security to your online accounts making it harder to access them in an unauthorised manner – even if your password ended up in the wrong hands. Many holiday booking platforms offer this option by now.
- If you entered your credit card details on a phishing website, contact your financial institution immediately for them to block that card.
Further information on the subject of scamming in the name of holiday booking platforms can be found here (BACS).
