Almost one in three French people have already been the victim of this scam, and the phenomenon does not stop.
Most people do not realize it, but a simple internet research may be enough to fall into a trap. Behind apparently harmless results are sometimes hidden from fraudulent sites, designed to recover personal data or obtain abusive payments. Often, crooks play on emotion and emergency to gain the confidence of users and achieve their ends. In a few clicks, with a completed form or a clickable link, the scam is triggered without the user noticing it at the time. This is how thousands of people get caught every day.
There is also an online scam that has been raging for a few years, and which has a peak of victims in February. A recent Icelandair study, the Icelandic airline, analyzed Google research trends and highlighted the most risky periods. If November and December come to the lead, February climbed all the same in fourth place in the months most conducive to this type of fraud. These are travel scams. “With 7,180 research, fraudsters taking advantage of the craze around Valentine’s Day to trap couples looking for a romantic stay”note the experts of Icelandair. But it is also the period at which many families are starting to seek their destination for the next school holidays, especially for the summer.
In 2024, the McAfee company had investigated this vast phenomenon and it came out that almost a third of the French surveyed (31 %) were already the victim. And the losses are not minimal. Almost a quarter of trapped people lost at least 1,000 euros. In general, this scam is in the form of false travel websites “Imitating reliable reservation platforms or false plane tickets offered at reduced prices”can be read in the press release. And that’s not all, there are certain cities in France where the crooks make more victims. This is the case of the inhabitants of Lille, who are particularly vulnerable to scams of false plane tickets.
Like the cities of Nice and Montpellier: research to “report a false plane ticket” increased 233% and 300% respectively, underlines the new study. As for fraudulent travel sites, there are many in Paris, Nantes and Lyon. In addition, the city of Strasbourg “experienced a 100% increase in research to report a vacation rental scam”. Proof that this problem is spread throughout the country. It is therefore better to redouble a vigilance before confirming any reservation for your vacation!