I lost £900 to Booking.com scam: Holidaymakers warned of fraud ahead of summer rush
- This is Money readers had money taken by scammers impersonating hotels
- It happened in the Booking.com app, after they infiltrated hotel accounts
- Are you a victim of one of these scams? Email [email protected]
Customers of Booking.com have told how they lost money after falling for a convincing scam when trying to book holidays.
As previously reported by This is Money, the hotel and short let website's messaging system has been infiltrated by scammers, who tell customers that they need to pay additional fees to secure their booking and pocket the cash.
Booking previously told This is Money that this was not a breach of its site or app, but that scammers were gaining access to the accounts of hotels and apartments and messaging customers pretending to be them.
Now This is Money has heard from customers who sadly fell for the messages and handed over cash.
Are you a victim of one of these scams? Email [email protected]
![App trap: Customers of Booking.com have received messages from scammers, who are pretending to be from hotels they have booked](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/15/16/83663893-13310643-image-a-3_1713195730875.jpg)
App trap: Customers of Booking.com have received messages from scammers, who are pretending to be from hotels they have booked
Becky (whose name has been changed at her request) lost £900 to the Booking.com scam while on a trip to Thailand in October 2023.
She had booked a hotel for one night in Bangkok, to stay in before heading to the airport for her flight home the next day.
She was on her way there late at night when she received a message on the Booking.com app appearing to be from hotel staff.
They requested a payment in the local currency, and said if she did not pay the booking would be cancelled.
'I should have picked up that this was more than I paid for the hotel, but it was obviously in a different currency and when you are panicking your booking may be cancelled whilst on route in the middle of the night, it's not your first thought,' she said.
She tried to get the money back from her bank, but her claim was turned down.
Banks may decide to reimburse scam victims, but their policies differ and the decision to do so is ultimately at their discretion.
This is Money contacted Booking.com to see if it was willing to refund Becky.
A week after we got in touch, it agreed to reimburse her for the £900.
Another This is Money reader, Rhiannon from Warwickshire, also had money taken from her account by a scammer operating via Booking.com
She recently pre-booked two nights at a Hampton by Hilton hotel in Blackburn to attend a friend's wedding in the summer of 2024.
Rhiannon had already messaged back and forth with the hotel about an early check-in, so when another message came through on the same Booking.com chat log she assumed it was genuine.
It said the hotel was changing its system and that she needed to give her card details again to secure her booking. She was told the hotel would take a small amount of money from her account and then refund it shortly after.
A £4 sum was taken initially – but this was followed up by another £144.72.
![Shock: Rhiannon found that £144.72 was snatched from her account, after she confirmed her card details to the hotel she had booked (stock image, posed by model)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/15/16/83662791-13310643-image-a-4_1713195749716.jpg)
Shock: Rhiannon found that £144.72 was snatched from her account, after she confirmed her card details to the hotel she had booked (stock image, posed by model)
'I messaged Booking.com who said to contact the hotel directly,' Rhiannon said. 'The hotel then confirmed that they did not take this money and that it sounded like a scam.'
In Rhiannon's case, she was able to make a successful claim for a refund with her bank.
'I was lucky that my bank refunded it back to me after I told them what had happened,' she said.
'Booking.com didn't seem bothered by what had happened and it's put me off using them in future.'
A third customer, Jean (whose name has also been changed) was forced to rebook hotel rooms at a higher cost, after someone – she believes a scammer – logged into her account and cancelled them.
She had booked nine rooms at a London hotel for late March this year, as accommodation for an event she was hosting. Her guests were going to pay for the rooms themselves on check-in.
In February she received an email from Booking.com out of the blue confirming that she had cancelled them, which she had not. She also had a holiday booked later in the year at a different hotel, which was also cancelled.
'I did not request this, but the hotel says that they were cancelled by me, using my Booking.com account,' she said.
'I have had emails saying someone else has been trying to access my account and change my password, and I assume they must have got in.
'The whole situation is very frustrating because I had already changed my password after I had read an article about scammers using Booking .com.'
'I called Booking .com immediately to re-instate the bookings but was told they couldn't do anything because the booking was cancelled,' she continues. 'I called the hotel who informed me they couldn't do anything because the booking was made via a third party.'
In the end, Jean re-booked the same rooms – for a cost of £800 more.
![Convincing: According to Booking.com, fraudsters have managed to gain access to the accounts of individual hotels on its platform - meaning they can pose as staff in messages](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/15/16/83662795-13310643-image-a-6_1713195877154.jpg)
Convincing: According to Booking.com, fraudsters have managed to gain access to the accounts of individual hotels on its platform - meaning they can pose as staff in messages
She doesn't know what the scammers were aiming to do with her account, but they later reset it and deleted her personal information - which cancelled out the rewards she had built up for being a regular user.
Booking.com declined to compensate Jean when contacted by This is Money.
A spokesman for Booking said: 'We were sorry to hear about the customer cases you've brought to our attention. As we previously confirmed, there has not been a security breach on the side of Booking.com.
'Some of our accommodation partners have been directly targeted by very convincing phishing tactics, led by professional cyber criminals, encouraging them to click on links or attachments, which in turn has resulted in malware being loaded onto their machines, and in some cases giving unauthorised access to their Booking.com account.
'This then enables these professional fraudsters to impersonate the accommodation and communicate with guests via email or messages.
'While this was not a breach of Booking.com, and the actual numbers of accommodations affected are a small fraction of those on our platform, we have made significant investments to limit the impact, putting new measures in place to protect our customers and support our partners, as the scam has evolved.
'If a customer ever has any concerns about a payment message, we encourage them to carefully check the payment policy details outlined on the property listing page and in the booking confirmation.
'Customers can also report messages to us via our customer service team, or by clicking on 'report an issue', which is included in the chat function, where we also have clear guidance for customers on how to avoid suspicious activity.'
Sunseekers warned over holiday scams
A major bank has also issued a warning over holiday scams as Britons look forward to summer getaways.
Lloyds said that holiday scams had risen 7 per cent over the last year, with those aged between 35 and 44 most likely to become victims. The average amount its customers lost to holiday scams was £765.
According to Lloyds, most holiday scams (49 per cent) start on Facebook Marketplace, where fraudsters list fictional holiday homes and take payments from customers before disappearing.
However, Lloyds added that fraudsters were increasingly looking to more official booking websites to draw victims in.
![Advice for travellers: Lloyds says there has been a spike in scams targeting holidaymakers](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/15/16/83662743-13310643-image-a-5_1713195767054.jpg)
Advice for travellers: Lloyds says there has been a spike in scams targeting holidaymakers
Lloyds said: 'Fraudsters have also been able to compromise the Booking.com mobile app, using it to successfully message holiday makers, posing as a booked hotel.
'While pretending to be the hotel, the scammer will ask for a further payment, to be sent in a different way to the original booking, or for card, bank account or other personal information. It's a sophisticated and layered scam, as it appears to be a message from the genuine hotel, sent through the actual Booking.com app.
Lloyds used the example of its customer Holly (whose name it changed) who lost £534 after falling for the Booking.com scam.
After booking a hotel room on the website and paying a deposit, she was contacted by someone who said they worked at the hotel, asking for a deposit again.
The telephone number was the same as the one listed for the hotel on Booking.com.
Holly questioned the second deposit, but ultimately paid up when she was told she'd lose the room if she didn't. She also agreed to pay an extra fee, which the hotel said was required as she was being joined by her partner.
Sadly, in Holly's case the scam went one step further. Not only did she pay deposits to a scammer, but it turned out the entire listing was fake.
The hotel never existed at all - and Holly only discovered this when she turned up with her suitcase.
She looked up the name of the business online and it came up with nothing, after which she discovered she had been sending money to the scammer's personal account.