As of: January 29, 2024, 3:00 p.m
By: Franziska Kaindl
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Fraudsters try to steal travelers' payment details after they make a booking on Booking.com.
What to pay attention to.
Many Germans look forward to vacation because it means a break from stressful everyday life - which makes it all the more annoying when fraudsters come in to steal money.
The consumer advice center is currently warning about false messages that travelers receive from the accommodation after booking on the online booking platform
Booking.com
.
Criminals are trying to get access to the payment details of those affected.
Fraudsters contact consumers directly via the booking platform
Fake notifications are becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to recognize: Fraudsters not only know how to recreate the website of a booking portal or email traffic in a deceptively realistic way, they apparently even manage to tell their victims directly via the platform and at the same time on WhatsApp to send messages.
The consumer advice center reports this based on some cases
that were brought to their attention on
Booking.com .
In some cases, the fraudsters even have specific data, such as the booking period or the booking number.
Payment problem when booking your trip?
Fraudsters can also be behind it.
© Pond5 Images/Imago
But how do they get this information?
According to consumer advice ,
Booking.com
denies
that there is a security gap on the site that gives criminals access to customers' booking data.
Instead, the fraudsters are said to have gained access to the
Booking.com
accounts of the accommodation employees - for example through phishing.
There they then pose as the customer's accommodation partner.
In one specific case, the fraudsters requested an additional card guarantee in the name of the accommodation due to an “update to the booking rules” to secure the stay.
They then lured the consumer with a link to a third-party website that is very similar
to
Booking.com .
However, the internet address in the address bar did not match.
If the person concerned had entered their credit card details here, they would most likely not have sent them to the accommodation, but to the fraudsters.
However, he didn't fall for the scam.
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Detect fake notifications from accommodations
The fraudsters' approach can vary depending on the case - some consumers received the fake messages immediately after booking, while others only fell for the criminals weeks later.
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According to consumer advocates, if you want to protect yourself against this, you should select “Payment at the accommodation” when booking.
However, this is not always possible, so bookers should always keep their eyes open.
If a message actually ends up in your inbox saying that additional verification is necessary or that something didn't work during the booking, you should initially be suspicious.
As
Booking.com
itself informs, customers are usually never asked to provide sensitive information via email, chat message, SMS, WhatsApp or telephone.
The best way to find out whether the message is genuine is to contact the booking platform's customer service or call the accommodation.