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With the summer approaching, many of us are starting to plan how we will spend our holidays and where we will go to rest. This long-awaited time is an actual positive charge for people. After long working days, we all want to reach a beautiful place, soak up on the beach, walk along beautiful streets, climb a high mountain, and so on. But sometimes, vacation can be pretty spoiled!
Related: “How to secure data with eSIM when traveling?“
The fact is that you and I are not the only ones making plans for the vacation season. Scammers are also starting to make plans, but only they are aimed at how to deceive citizens. Read about what methods scammers often practice today and how to have a safe trip in our blog!
How Can They Cheat You — 3 common Travel Scams
Vacationers relaxed by the sea are easy prey for scammers. If you are going on vacation, find out the most common tricks scammers use to fool people around. This travel scams information will help you to save money and nerves.
Deception via phishing sites & e-mail
How does this happen in reality? Victims of fraudsters purchase airline tickets for flights. To do this, persons enter “buy cheap tickets” in the browser’s search bar, after which they are automatically redirected to portals that seem to assist in finding and purchasing tickets.
On these sites, people enter their future route into the search line, and when a list with the cost of tickets and airlines appears. Many, of course, chose a lower price and where there was an opportunity to return the ticket, if necessary.
Then future travelers click on the ticket price and are redirected to another site that sells tickets. A scam victim entered valid passport data, email address, and bank card number. Then a person made the payment. The code funds were debited from a bank card account. A traveler receives a notification that the ticket will be emailed to him/her. However, the electronic version of the tickets did not come.
When using this popular ways to scam method, scammers try to mislead by creating sites that are visually indistinguishable from the sites of well-known airlines. When people order tickets here, they do not suspect anything, so they send money to scammers’ accounts using various payment gateways.
False auction
This is another travel scams example, the victims of which are mainly novice travelers.
Everything happens banally: a tourist is approached by an alleged company representative in which the action is taking place and issues a coupon for a prize draw. An inexperienced traveler agrees to take the voucher with pleasure, as it is free! Then, a tourist erases the protective layer and discovers the winning combo! This can be expensive, like a vacuum cleaner, TV, or even an apartment.
What comes next? One more winner appears all of a sudden. This is a fake one. This person convinces everyone around that he is the winner! The company’s representative apologizes, reports the error, and offers to arrange an auction: whoever gives more money will take the prize. And so, the whole scam scene comes like that: you need to put money on the table — this is proof that they are there.
Usually, the victim agrees to the auction and wins. But, the thing is that the scammers take the tourist’s money, go for the prize, or some documents, or the manager – and never return. So, before going on a trip you should learn about how to avoid travel scams!
Help me find the missing
A scammer finds a tourist on the beach and asks him to look around: they say he lost his car documents somewhere here, and now he can’t leave. For help, he promises to thank the tourist for the find with a certain amount of money. To stay in touch, the scammer gives a phone number to a tourist.
After that, a scammer leaves, and a passerby appears next to the vacationer, who finds the documents and is looking for the owner. The tourist informs about the reward, and the passerby offers a deal: since he is in a hurry, he will leave the documents to the vacationer if he immediately pays him part of the amount for the find.
Tips to Stay Safe while Traveling & Not fall Victim to Travel Scams
Vacations should be pleasant, calm, and safe! Here are some tips on how to have a safe trip and avoid scammers:
- Don’t trust unverified housing ads: if you are going to rent a house from a private person, ask your fellows to recommend the owners they stayed with before. Or use proven websites where the service transfers money to the house owner only on day after your arrival.
- Book flight tickets and tourist excursions only in trustworthy travel agencies. Specify what is included in the entire cost. Read all documents before signing them.
- During a walk to the beach, excursions, or other outings during the holidays, carry a minimum of cash and keep money on the card (preferably on two different ones).
- Don’t be tempted by too low prices. They are usually associated with vacation scams and low-quality goods or services.
- Before choosing a travel operator, look at the company’s history. Typically, it is easy to find negative comments about a particular travel agency on the Web.
- Be vigilant during traveling to the maximum. Don’t trust things from strangers on the beach to have a safe trip. Also, do not believe when you are offered to earn money in case of finding a lost thing. Decent people don’t behave like that.
