The number of holiday makers who fell victims to scams increased sharply. They lost a record of £7.2million
Have you ever seen a travel offer which appeared “too good to be true”? The number of Britons who fell victim to ‘sophisticated’ scams last year increased by 20% compared to 2015, almost 6,000 holiday makers being scammed out of a record £7.2million by online booking fraudsters.
Often, scammers are harder to be detected, as they hack into legitimate accounts of owners letting out properties on popular websites. They intercept emails, impersonate owners and convince holiday makers to pay them directly and then disappear with the money, Mirror.co.uk reports.
Other people are tempted by fake websites which have photos and descriptions stolen from other holiday websites.
loading...
Travel agents fear that, the increase of early bookings may leave customers vulnerable ahead of the summer holidays, as many victims use to pay for trips with bank transfers and they have no way of getting their money back.
“From fraudulent flight to non existent accommodation, the impact of falling victims to holiday fraud can be far greater than the financial loss,” said also Steve Proffitt, deputy head of the City of London’s Action Fraud team.
Loading...