A Which? investigation has proved just how easy it is for con artists to put fake accommodation listings on popular holiday-letting websites. We set up fake profiles on Airbnb and TripAdvisor’s Holiday Lettings, and successfully placed eight scam listings on each. In each case, it took us just minutes to create the scam listings and […]
Month: April 2017
Hotels shown to be susceptible to cybercrime
The hospitality industry continues to be a lucrative target for hackers and cybercriminals, the most recent example being a data breach of guests’ payment cards at nearly 1,200 InterContinental Hotels Group hotels in the U.S. The annual cost of payment-card fraud doubled worldwide between 2012 and 2015, to about $22 billion. It is expected to […]
Hackers launch Delta fake ticket receipt scam
Heimdal Security researchers spotted fraudsters sending phishing emails under the guise of blank Delta Airlines’ ticket confirmations. The victims receive an email purportedly from Delta stating that the user’s ticket order has been confirmed using their credit card, however the email does not contain any further details about the flight. However, it does contain links […]
Bogus travel agent jailed for two years
A bogus travel agent has been jailed for two years after conning families out of £130,000 by pretending she’d booked them holidays. Susan Lee, of Leaze Park, Okehampton, targeted friends, customers and strangers who came into her sweet and toy shop, The Emporium, in the Devon town. Exeter Crown Court heard she told them ‘a […]
British tourists’ fake poisoning scam
The Spanish tourism industry is up in arms at the booming popularity of a scam which has seen British holidaymakers apparently fake illness in order to claim hefty compensation packages from hotels. Industry sources have warned that increasing numbers of Britons are using the hoax, which involves complaining that a meal in the hotel where […]
Hackers stole credit card data
The hotel chain that owns Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and other brands said credit card information of their guests may have been stolen last year at thousands of locations, including more than 100 in Canada. British-based InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) said it is aware of “unauthorized charges occurring on payment cards after they were […]
IHG warns of second payment card data breach
InterContinental Hotels Group has issued a warning to customers over a second payment card data breach, which happened in late 2016. The latest breach occurred for transactions made between September 29, 2016 and December 29, 2016 and the company says there is no evidence any cards were compromised after this date. This breach affects more […]