Flying Nowhere: A Surge in International Travelers' Sting Methods | Israel Hayom

Passover and Shavuot are already behind us, and the next holiday season is the summer vacation.

Summer begins in about a month, and many Israelis have already booked and are currently booking their annual vacation abroad. The vacation is undoubtedly a happy event, but there are also quite a few sting methods that can completely destroy it, and cause those hoping to go on vacation significant economic damage.

In conversations with employees at Ben Gurion Airport, they tell of an increase in the number of cases in which passengers arrive at the airport - and discover that the flight ticket they purchased does not exist. "We constantly encounter passengers who come to the check-in counters with an email showing us plane tickets, but the tickets don't appear in the system. These are sting methods that have existed for quite some time, but unfortunately there are still quite a few innocent people who fall into them easily."

Airline ticket, photo: Getty Images

Forced to cancel vacations

The method works so that websites impersonate booking sites, charge for flight tickets and send fake tickets, which do not exist. Passengers, who arrive at Ben Gurion Airport and discover the scam in which they fell, have to order new tickets at that moment, usually at a high price - and sometimes even have to cancel their vacation due to the economic damage caused to them.

It is important to emphasize that we have published this phenomenon in the past, which unfortunately still continues. To avoid such situations, it is recommended to use the reservation number and go to the official website of the airline, where you can see if the reservation exists for sure. This is a process that takes only a few minutes and can relatively safely confirm the flight ticket.

Ben Gurion Airport (archive), photo: Yossi Zeliger

This sting method is also known in hotels around the world. Here, too, you can simply contact the hotel in advance, thus ensuring almost certainly that the reservation actually exists.

The phenomenon of these phishing sites, as mentioned, recurs every tourist season. These sites look exactly like the official websites of hotels and airlines, but they are actually fake. In order to make sure that this is the real site - it is recommended not to access it through links sent to you from unknown sources and to read the URL carefully. Sometimes a change of one letter, which is usually not noticed, is all the difference.

Here's how to avoid

Look for the lock mark next to the URL, and be aware of unusually low prices, poor design, misspelled websites, and exaggerated gifts. All of these can reduce the chances of falling for a sting, but as we know, it is difficult to guarantee definitive protection against fraudsters.

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