SCAMMED using Booking .com

[Brockett]

No inference is being made that Booking .Com is behind this But
My mate Steve booked his usual away break for his annual Fly Fishing trip to Scotland
A little later he was sent an email ( from what appeared to be Booking.com) asking that he complete and online form and submit full payment, something like £234 .02  which was the price he had previously been quoted and which had signed up for.
It has now been shown to have been a scam and Booking.com are not interested in his complaint.
From his point of view the price he was originally quoted and subsequent demand for payment matched and he saw no reason to suspect fraud.  You might wonder how it is that the fraudsters knew all of his booking.com details including holiday hotel and price?
He uses Booking.com for all of his weekend breaks and fishing trips so he clicked the address he has always used.
My advice is to ensure, when using booking.co, you DO NOT send anyone money as that is not how they do business.  Has someone found a way in to Bookingcom data? let's hope not.

 

[nigel s]

Good advice Brockett,
My Boss uses booking.com and trivago a lot for work and has been sent regular emails from scammers. Not been caught out yet because his secretary does all the bookings for him.
It is usually the hotel that has been hacked , not booking .com/trivago. But she did have to set up a new company email for him one time after his trivago account was hacked so he could use it "safely??" again.

[Brockett]

An alternative is that a scammer has hacked into the hotel's system and got the information from there. As I said earlier there is no suggestion that Booking.com is in any way at fault. However, try discussing this with their AI customer service and you might as well shout at the moon. When eventually a real person became available they were a) not interested and b) no help at all. The Hotel staff were suddenly unable to speak or understand English and his bank said it's not their problem and they are not going to take any action. He could see that the payment had not finalised and asked for it to be stopped but his bank didn't or couldn't. When he said he wanted his account secured because someone now had all of his card details he was told to just keep and eye on it!! 
I think I will use a credit card much more often. 
A separate email service for finance is a good idea

[2112]

Thanks for the heads up Brockett, always good to be reminded to keep Your guard up 

P.S. I hope your mate get's his dosh back.

[crump]

Good to know this, we use booking.com a lot.
Last couple of years we've asked by a few hotels to pay  before we go, usually a couple of weeks before, so far they've all been legit but will have to keep an eye on it.

[cooltshirt]

It is very easy in the day and age of tap tap debit card to forget the benefits of a credit card for larger and online purchases.

[The Doctor 46]

I have used Booking.com a lot too and never had a problem even booking a small hotel in Uzbekistan from UK went without problems, infact the accommodation far surpassed my expectation.

I did get scammed to the sum of £1.50 once while expecting a parcel delivery from royal Mail. An email asked me to pay £1.50 handling charge from China and was expecting this but, it wasn't Royal Mail and there was nothing to pay. My bank reimbursed me within seconds of me calling them.

Thank you for reminding us of this scam though, I will take more time to double check reservations in the future. 

[Sir Trev]

I did some work for a hotel once and learned a lot about how the booking systems work as well as the discounts and commission they have to offer the likes of Trivago. The comparison sites are great for sifting and deciding on a hotel but the tip I got was call the hotel after deciding and see if they will do you a deal direct. Its better for the hotel, if they can they'll match the price, and you may well get a nicer room. It's worth a try, especially if you're booking way ahead or in a quieter time for the hotel.

Hope it works out OK for your mate Brockett.

[Barbel Mick]

I/we use Booking.Com for all our trips. Both UK & Europe.
I am registered with Booking.Com & they have my credit card details. It normally states, at the time of booking, when the payment is due & up to what date you can cancel.
Very few places take any payment at the time of booking, just a few will take the payment around 7 days prior to arrival, but the vast majority take it on arrival.

I know that if I get any early contact asking for payment on a booking it won't be legit. 

Brocket, I hope Steve gets his money back. If he paid by credit card he should, I also believe that now debit cards are treated similar, not 100% sure on that though.     

[Brockett]

@Mick - no.
We chatted about it today and I have some of the details wrong.
He has the Booking.com app on his phone.
The scammers contacted him via the app
No emails were exchanged.
He looked at Booking.com to sort out a place for us next week but did not actually book through Booking.com. However the scammer tried it for a second bite for next week's hotel even though he didn't book anything through the app.
The hotel in Scotland told him that that lots of people are being scammed though the Booking.com app. Steve is still trying to talk to a real person at Booking.com but it seems the whole business is run by AI and bots. He lost about £300. These scammers should be burnt to death like witches.

[Barbel Mick]

Ah! That's a bit scary then. If they can hack the app & send you a 'booking & charge you can they get your credit card details too?
I shall be very wary (more than I already am  with regard to stuff like that.

[Brockett]

No. They wouldn't accept a credit card and that should have set alarm bells ringing. But they did scoop up all of his bank account details.
It was because everything was done through the app that he thought it was legit.

[purplebikeunicorn]

Sounds like they've just used the in-app messaging service and asked for details?

Was this a genuine hotel, or have they set up a spoofed one (hence knowing the details)?