Summer is officially here and you might be looking to beat the heat with a trip to a popular beach or dream overseas vacation, but experts warn that online scammers are looking to take advantage of eager travelers.
Vacation scams are nothing new. Travel can be expensive and people are looking to grab the best prices they can get, says Seckin Yilgoren, Mastercard’s senior vice president for security solutions for North American markets.
This is especially true now as many people deal are dealing with increasing economic pressures and rising inflation. The problem is, a lot of great offers out there just aren’t the real thing.
“Don’t get me wrong, we all want the deals, but I think some are too good to be true,” Yilgoren said in an interview.
According to a Mastercard analysis of its transaction data and additional data from third-party sources, fraud related to the early stages of travel planning rose 12% in 2024 from the year before.
That could partially stem from the fact that scammers are now using advanced tech, including tools powered by artificial intelligence, to create increasingly convincing fake emails, texts, social media posts and websites at a much faster rate.
Researchers at the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes recently spotted a collection of online ads that when clicked on led people to fake booking.com websites. Those sites featured malicious Captcha forms that would trick people into copying, and ultimately executing, code invisible to them on their computers.
That code would infect their computers with malware, allowing the attacker to remotely monitor the computers and gather sensitive and financial information, Malwarebytes said.
Many consumers don’t think twice about completing a Captcha test these days and the instructions included with the scam Captchas look completely normal, says David Ruiz, a privacy advocate for Malwarebytes.
“It’s hard to trust and know what is real and what is not,” Ruiz said.
How to protect yourself from travel scams
Need help sorting out the great travel deals from the scams? Here are some tips from the experts.
If an offer is too good to be true… Yes, we all know the saying. Admittedly, sometimes it can be tough to spot suspicious offers, but it’s best to stay skeptical of any amazing travel offer. Stick with well-known booking sites, or book directly through the hotel or airline. Don’t click on ads in social media or sponsored results that come up in a Google search, Ruiz says. If a travel company offers you a promotion after you’ve already booked, asking you to cancel and rebook, or download an app, that should also be seen as a red flag.
Protect your travel accounts. The online accounts you use to book flights and hotels are prime targets for online thieves. Reward points and airline miles are as good as cash to them if they can break into your accounts, Yilgoren says. Make them pick someone else by making sure you set long, unique and random passwords for all of your accounts and always enable two-factor authentication. Need help? Try a password manager.
Back up everything. When you travel, you’re going to use your phone for everything from contactless payments to taking photos and carrying important documents like flight and hotel reservations. But phones can get broken, lost or stolen. Before you leave town, make sure you have backup copies of all your important information and make sure you’ve set your devices to also backup the photos you take along the way.
Beware of fake CAPTCHAs. A site asking you to prove you’re a human by clicking on pictures of motorcycles is probably fine. But if it asks you to copy and paste something, especially text you can’t see, stay away.
Think about a VPN. In the age of end-to-end encryption, the odds of a cybercriminal intercepting your online traffic and being able to use it for nefarious means are pretty slim. Still, a virtual private network (VPN) can provide you some extra security, especially if you’re traveling in countries where government or criminal online surveillance is a concern.
Prep your credit cards for travel. It never hurts to call your bank ahead of your trip, so they don’t flag your vacation spending as suspicious. Make sure you have a backup card in case your main one gets lost or stolen. Ideally, you should store it in a different bag, just in case your pocket gets picked. Use contactless payments whenever possible and set up account alerts. Make sure you know your card PIN, especially if you’re traveling overseas where they’re used more often, Yilgoren says.
Limit your digital footprint. There’s no shortage of personal tidbits online about the average person, giving online attackers plenty of material to use in customized scams. Give them less to work with by limiting the information you put online. Lock down your social media accounts and think before you hand over personal data when doing things like online shopping.
When it comes to travel, consider not posting your photos online until after you leave and resist the temptation to tell the world where you’re headed next, Yilgoren says.
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