Your Vacation Is a Scam Target
By Greg Collier
The suitcase is packed. The hotel is booked. The flight is scheduled. And then your phone buzzes.
Your airline says your flight has been canceled.
Or maybe it is your hotel telling you there is a problem with your payment.
The message looks legitimate. It contains your name, your reservation information, and the exact amount you paid. There is a link to fix the problem.
So you click.
That can be all it takes to turn a vacation into a financial disaster.
Scammers Are Turning Travel Plans Against Travelers
Travel scams are nothing new. Pickpockets, fake tour operators, and bogus taxi drivers have been around for generations. But scammers now have something they did not have before: enormous amounts of personal information and increasingly powerful artificial intelligence tools.
That combination is making travel scams much harder to recognize.
The Associated Press recently reported on the growing sophistication of travel scams, noting that AI and stolen data can help criminals create convincing websites and messages. The problem is that the most dangerous scam may no longer look like a scam at all. It may look exactly like something you were expecting to receive.
If you receive an email claiming you won a free Caribbean vacation when you never entered a contest, you probably know something is wrong.
But what if you receive a message saying your hotel reservation needs to be updated?
You actually have a hotel reservation.
That is where things get dangerous.
The Reservation You Made Can Become the Bait
One of the scams highlighted by the AP is what experts call reservation hijacking.
A scammer may obtain information about a legitimate hotel reservation after compromising a hotel’s or booking service’s systems. That information can include the traveler’s dates and the price of the reservation.
The criminal can then send a message pretending to be the hotel.
The message might claim that your payment failed or that there is a problem with your reservation. You are told that you need to click a link and provide payment information immediately or risk losing your room.
Everything appears to make sense because the information is real.
The reservation is real.
The dates are real.
The amount is real.
The problem is the person asking you for money.
This is a particularly nasty development because travelers have been trained to look for inconsistencies. If the scammer already knows the details of your trip, there may be very little that looks suspicious.
It’s been described as a legitimate reservation being turned into a weapon against the person who made it.
The Fake Flight Cancellation
Another version takes advantage of something travelers dread hearing: your flight has been canceled.
Imagine receiving a text the day before your vacation saying your flight has been canceled or delayed. The message offers a link where you can supposedly rebook.
The clock is ticking.
You have luggage packed. You may already be at the airport or preparing to leave for it. You cannot simply ignore the message.
That urgency is exactly what the scammer wants.
The criminal may then demand a fee to rebook the flight or direct you to a fake website designed to steal your payment information.
The safest response is surprisingly simple.
Do not use the link in the message.
Instead, open the airline’s official website or app yourself and check your reservation. If there really is a problem, deal with the airline through its legitimate channels.
And if you need to call the airline, don’t automatically use the telephone number provided in the suspicious message. Find the official number yourself.
Scammers Know You Are Expecting Their Messages
This is part of a much larger problem with modern scams.
Travelers are expecting emails and text messages.
You expect your airline to contact you.
You expect your hotel to contact you.
You expect your rental car company to contact you.
You may even expect a message from a booking website.
That makes travel scams particularly effective.
Scammers once relied on messages that seemed completely out of place. Now, some of the most dangerous scams are the ones that look authentic.
That is a major change in how consumers have to think about fraud.
A message being expected does not make it legitimate.
Don’t Post Your Boarding Pass
Travelers can also make scammers’ jobs easier without realizing it.
Posting vacation pictures in real time can reveal information about where you are, but travel documents can reveal even more.
A photograph of a boarding pass might appear harmless, particularly if you cover the flight number with an emoji or otherwise try to obscure the information.
But boarding passes can contain barcodes and QR codes that contain information travelers may not realize they are exposing.
That information can potentially reveal details about a trip, including return travel.
The safest approach is to keep travel documents off social media entirely. There is little benefit to letting strangers know exactly where you are going and when you will be there.
And when it comes to vacation photographs, waiting until you return home eliminates another opportunity for criminals to track your movements in real time.
That Free Wi-Fi May Not Be Free
Then there is the “free” Wi-Fi.
Airports, hotels, coffee shops, and other public locations frequently offer wireless internet access. Travelers understandably want to connect so they can check directions, download boarding passes, or find information about their destination.
But criminals can create fake networks with names that resemble legitimate ones.
You might think you are connecting to the airport’s Wi-Fi when you are actually connecting to a network operated by a criminal.
Once connected, your device and the information you transmit may be at risk.
Treat public Wi-Fi cautiously. If you need to use it, stick to relatively basic activities such as looking up directions rather than accessing sensitive accounts such as your bank or email.
Slow Down Before You Pay
The biggest defense against these scams is to resist the pressure.
If an airline supposedly contacts you about a canceled flight, check the airline’s official app or website.
If a hotel says there is a payment problem, contact the hotel using information you obtained independently.
If someone sends you a payment link, don’t assume the link is safe simply because the message contains accurate information about your trip.
And if somebody tells you that you have only minutes to fix a problem, that is precisely when you should stop.
Scammers want travelers to react.
They want panic to take over before common sense has a chance to catch up.
The old advice to beware of suspicious messages still applies. The problem is that today’s suspicious message may know your name, your destination, your hotel, your flight number, and exactly how much you paid.
The next time you travel, remember that the scam may not be waiting at your destination. It may already be hiding inside your itinerary.
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