Many travelers have received a fake message from the hotel booking site.
It’s a time of excitement for millions of French people. In a few days or weeks, goodbye to the daily routine punctuated by work, children, transport, household chores… Before long, it will be toes fanned out (or almost), cocktails and relaxation that will be on the agenda. But the holidays are also a time of decompression often conducive to scams. The latest one is enough to be worrying for future tourists.
For several days, an email has been sent to people who have booked a hotel on the Booking platform. The subject is simple: “You have a message from the establishment…”. Enough to encourage you to click and open the email. There, a text in English appears, stating: “Booking.com has updated the specifications of its platform. A new regulation requires that each reservation be confirmed. This remains necessary even if you have already paid for your reservation.” A link is then added on which you are asked to click to confirm the reservation.
A few days before your big departure, you may be panicking. But that’s where you have to be careful! Indeed, the message indicates that you have to make this new confirmation within 12 hours. And the link redirects to a page where you are asked to re-enter your bank card. You should definitely not do this, it’s a scam. The email does not come from the hotel and the site is fraudulent: if you enter your bank card, you risk seeing illicit debits appear on your bank account.
Many people wonder how such a seemingly real email, with the correct name of the booked hotel, could have been sent. In reality, the targeted customers booked in establishments that faced a data breach. From the fraudulently obtained elements, the criminals were able to send these emails with these fake platforms to real customers.
To protect yourself from any risk, you must verify the email address. If it is not in the format [email protected]then it is a fake message. Moreover, the exact subject of the email, when a hotel writes to you, is “You have received a new message from the establishment so-and-so via Booking.com”. And in case of doubt, it is also always better to contact the structure directly. Just so as not to spoil your long-awaited vacation.