You see a vacay at a too-good-to-be-true discount online. After booking, you get a call about an “extra charge” to finalize your trip. All fake! Protect yourself: Verify unknown companies at the BBB website, look for “https://” in the site URL (it means the website is secure), and use a credit card so you can dispute phony charges.
How to spot and protect yourself from travel scams
Scammers are a lot of things: Cruel, insidious and greedy. One thing they are not? Dumb.
Scammers keep getting more creative, and consumers like us must constantly update our knowledge on how to avoid these scams — especially when it comes to travel!
One relatively new scam involves scammers selling you what you think is a legit ticket, which later turns out to be only a reservation.
A new travel scam to watch for
Here’s how it works: You search for airline tickets online or reply to a scam email. Overwhelmed by all the sites and apps (find the 10 best ones here!), you choose what seems like a trustworthy source and contact them.
They promise they can get you a great rate on a ticket and take down all your particulars: Name, phone number and more. Then you pay for the ticket. (Payment may also be asked for at a later date.)
Using your information, they book what you think is a confirmed seat and claim that you’re all set.
Thinking you’re doing due diligence, you visit the airline’s main site, enter your information and boom — there’s your reserved seat. You pat yourself on the back for saving money and consider your travel booked.
Two weeks later, the reserved hold runs out and your seat evaporates. You find this out and try to get help from the airline. Usually, they can do nothing for you since only a reservation was actually booked.
Hopefully, you find this out long before standing at an airport customer service counter, suitcase in hand! Either way, you don’t have an airline ticket and have been scammed out of the money.
Side note: With all the planning, thinking and hours of work they must put into their elaborate scams, you wonder why they just refuse to get a real job. Scamming is a cruel, lazy way to make a living.
Outsmarting the thieves
8 biggest scams you need to watch out for
The state of scamming in the digital world paints a grim picture. There’s no better word. In 2020, the FTC received over 2.1 million fraud reports. Imposter scams are the most common type of fraud the agency heard about.
5 online travel scams that are spreading now
Summer should be a time for relaxation and wild adventures. The last thing you need to worry about is being tricked out of your hard-earned cash during travel season.
Unfortunately, criminals are looking to take advantage of vacationers to make a quick buck. You don’t have to travel in fear, though, as there are several things that you can do to stay safe and protect your information. Tap or click here for insider tech travel hacks you’ll use every single trip.
Looking for cheap airfare? Don't fall for this sneaky scam
Are you ready to start exploring the world again? Most people are after the crazy year we just went through.
But before you go booking a vacation rental, we need to share some helpful advice with you. Vacation rental scams are getting trickier, and they’re not easy to spot. Tap or click here for red flags to watch for.