If you have a reservation on Booking and you receive a message asking for your information because something has gone wrong with the reservation, please Be careful because it could be a scam.. It is very important that you know the scam that I am going to explain to you in today's article. And, more and more, we find cybercriminals who try to get hold of our personal and financial data through phishing. This time, occurs through Booking. Keep reading what I tell you How to prevent your data from being stolen by this Booking scam.
A Booking scam?
The scam we are going to talk about takes advantage of the fear we have of losing our hotel reservation rights for our vacations. Basically The Booking scam is a type of phishing that takes advantage of users' trust in the platform to steal personal and financial information.
But to the question of whether this scam is from Booking, the answer is no, this scam has nothing to do with Booking itself but rather It is cybercriminals who use this medium to get hold of your data. Cybercriminals are dedicated to gaining access to the accounts of hotel employees who advertise on Booking. They do this to have access to the reservation data of users of the hotel platform.
In other words, They manage to access the data of certain hotels to have access to existing customer reservations. So that? To request personal data from clients. I explain the process they follow so you can avoid it.
How does the Booking vacation scam work?
Cybercriminals are becoming more and more clever at practicing phishing, so We also need to be more cautious with our information and online activity. But of course, if they play with our vacations, we may not think clearly and offer our data without consideration.
So I'm going to explain to you How do they do this scam so you can avoid it or so you know if it has happened to you before?. Let's see.
- First of all, cybercriminals they take over hotel accounts that are compromised by malware.
- Once you have access from the hotel to Booking, they send you a message directly from the hotel's compromised account.
- The message informs that there has been payment problems and requests personal and financial details of the reservation.
- The data request usually directs the user to a website similar to Booking to "confirm the reservation" this being a mere deception.
- When the victim enters their data on the fake page, These data are sent directly to cybercriminals.
This is how the Booking scam works that is affecting hundreds of users. Cybercriminals take advantage of users' fear of losing their reservation during their vacation. Furthermore, this usually happens a few days before the vacation date, so correcting this error, which is actually a scam, requires the user to immediately correct it.
This urgency means that scammed users do not pay attention to the website that redirects the scam, which is a way to detect if we are being victims of data theft. Which leads me to explain to you How can you avoid the Booking scam?.
How can you avoid the Booking scam?
To avoid falling for the Booking scam, there are several things you can do. Here I leave you some tips that will come in handy to avoid this and other similar scams.
Contact the hotel
Even though the accounts of some employees of that hotel are compromised, if you call the reception phone number you will have no problem speaking to the hotel employees. Thus You can let them know when you received that message that tries to scam you..
In addition to verify that it is a scam on the part of the hotel, they will also know that other users with reservations are in the same danger. So they will surely try to correct the error as soon as possible.
Always check the links they send you
A sure way to avoid falling into traps is carefully review the links they send us. Don't let your guard down. Keep in mind that this scam sends phishing links directly from the employees' accounts, so if you only check that the email has been sent by a hotel worker, it is very likely that you could fall for the scam.
To avoid this, what we are going to do is directly access Booking as we always do. This way we can access our reservation information from a reliable source. As soon as you see that the problem does not exist and that your reservation is safe, you can rest assured
Be wary of emergencies
Scammers will always try to make you fall into the trap through haste and urgency. It is very common in phishing for cybercriminals to tempt the victim with deadlines to send personal information. So something you can do If you see urgency in the messages it is distrustful.
If something is urgent, take a break and think. Can you verify the origin of the message? Act calmly and avoid rushing since it can lead you to give your data to who you shouldn't.
Prevent this scam from spreading
And of course, If you are aware that they have tried to scam you through Booking, let them know. Try to notify the hotel to let them know that their accounts have been compromised. Furthermore, it is recommended that you share your situation with friends and family members, whom you also You should send them this article so they can prepare for a similar scam.
Be careful with all the scams that are out there lately, such as the vishing scam on WhatsApp or the Wallapop scams. If something is in our hands it is be cautious and sound the warning horn when these scams happen.