Online Scammers Prey On Holidaymakers

Since the advent of the internet it has become widely recognised as the home of bargain holidays

. As the pounds have poured into the online travel industry so, inevitably, have the scammers.

Thirty percent of holidaymakers surveyed by the government-backed security website Get Safe Online, and the Travel Association Abta, admitted that they failed to enact even the most simple fraud protection measures in their online holiday shopping.

This leaves them prone to one of the many scams currently in operation and when you draw a credit card comparison against those those who use debit cards its the former who are most at risk.

These include fraudsters producing sites which pretend to be genuine travel operators in an attempt to get access to users' card details. The fake sites can feature content and images that are copied from their genuine counterparts.

This mimics the behaviour of fraud aimed at those trying to obtain bad credit rating credit cards.

Other recognised scams include the use of fraudulent links from real sites. These are made possible when the user has multiple tabs open in their internet browser and may have been lax in properly updating their anti-virus program.

Many holidaymakers will be searching for last-minute holidays at this time of year. The internet can provide a great way of shopping around for bargains as long as basic precautions against online crime are taken.

Common mistakes made by those seeking inexpensive holidays include failing to ensure that the travel operator is authentic.

This can be easily done by checking whether they are members of a recognised travel association such as Abta. Research shows that more than a fifth of people also fail to check whether the web page is secure before entering their payment details.

An unsecure site can be easily intercepted by fraudsters looking to access users' card details.

However, cards such as the Halifax all in one credit card come with a secure code service which may prevent this.

According to the managing director of GetSafeOnline.org, Tony Neate, the time to start seriously thinking about doing some background research is when things start to not add up or seem a little too good to be true.

It may come as something of a surprise that many holiday bargain-hunters are unaware of the existence of online travel scams.

According to Get Safe Online, 68% of people surveyed claim to have never heard of false holiday websites. Another 67% didn't know about holiday rental frauds, and 81% admitted ignorance concerning gap-year scams.

Get Safe Online provides a variety of tips to help holiday-seekers organize their trip safely. These include remembering to log out of sites with which you've registered your details, keeping all online receipts, checking any payments and immediately telling the bank when something seems amiss, and not responding to pop-up windows requesting information.

by: Justin Schamotta

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