Many Israelis are currently packing suitcases for the months-awaited August vacation, but there are also those who may have fallen into a sting that will cost them a lot of money.
In recent weeks, we have received quite a few sting messages from Israelis who ordered from sites pretending to be Booking, and who received messages and emails from sites that look very similar to the original Booking site, but in fact - these are scammers who have nothing to do with the company.
Some Israelis received emails asking them to re-enter their credit card details for verification or security, and many of them thought it was an email that actually came from Booking and entered their credit card details.
One of the customers contacted Booking, where they replied that they would not ask to transfer credit card details by phone or email, and would not ask to add money to the order made, so these are two warning signs worth paying attention to.
Many complaints come in
An official response to our request from Booking said: "We at booking.com take safety and security issues very seriously, and are aware of the uncertainty this situation can create, both for our partners and for our customers."
Booking offices // Photo: Reuters,
In addition, there are new tourism companies that promise cheap and dreamy vacations, and in practice do not deliver. The Israeli Consumer Council warns against such companies, claiming that there have been recent cases of companies offering vacations at low prices and disappearing after payment.
Quite a few Israelis paid thousands of shekels for the long-awaited vacation, but in practice - there are no plane tickets, real hotel reservations or anything related to the vacation. To avoid such situations, it is recommended to book from companies or agents you know and trust, not to click on links sent to you from unknown parties, and you can always call the hotel and the airline and make sure that the reservation actually exists in their systems.
Photo: AP // Disappointment on the way to the flight,
The Israel Consumer Council addressed the cases in a conversation with Israel Hayom: "The Consumer Council receives complaints from consumers who booked vacations and flights with nothing behind them, and from consumers who arrived at the airport or hotel and discovered that there was no reservation for them – and the money went. It is not difficult to get confused, because the site is in Hebrew and looks real, but a review of the regulations will show that the company is not located in Israel, which should turn on a red light, because it will be difficult to communicate with it in case of a problem.
"It's important to remember that real companies don't communicate with their customers through these means. If you've received messages like this with all sorts of links, or messages from people you don't know, trying to contact you directly – there's a high probability that the attractive offer won't end with a sunbathing holiday."
Another sting method that you should be very careful of is representatives who pose as airline representatives and ask you to transfer your credit card details to them on WhatsApp. In most cases, they operate social media pages, with phishing phone numbers or WhatsApp that look very similar to the originals, and when contacted they ask for details and credit card details in order to make changes to the order at the customer's request, and in practice charge thousands of shekels.
Cheating in a variety of ways
In a conversation with Meital, an Israeli who was stung by this method, she says: "As soon as I gave the representative the credit card details for a change in my order, I received alerts about thousands of shekels in collection attempts. I immediately told him that I was getting on top of him and that I saw that he was a crook, and he was very frightened. At first, the money didn't come back to me, but after dealing with the credit card company, I managed to save myself. But lots of others are falling."
EasyJet said: "We continuously monitor Facebook accounts impersonating the official easyJet account. We continue to report the fake accounts to Facebook so Facebook can take the necessary steps to remove them. We encourage customers to be vigilant and communicate only with our official and only Facebook account."
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