SCAMS BULLETIN Host Jay White is a volunteer attorney who provides free legal assistance to low income seniors in San Mateo County, California.

June 11, 2019

These days, travel starts on the internet. More than 140 million Americans do trip research online, and 83 percent of travelers use websites to make bookings, according to an industry analysis by advertising agency MDG. But as you search for savings on lodging and flights, keep a sharp eye out for deceptive offers and outright scams that could cost you a bundle.
Be especially wary when using third-party hotel booking sites. According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), nearly a quarter of consumers report being misled by travel resellers on the phone or online, affecting 28.5 million bookings and $5.2 billion in transactions in 2017 alone.
Unscrupulous resellers draw consumers through search engine ads and send them, via links or posted phone numbers, to booking websites or call centers that appear to be affiliated with a hotel. The lookalike site will feature detailed descriptions of rooms and amenities; it might even have the hotel’s name in its URL. But you are not actually dealing with the hotel. This can have consequences ranging from inconvenient (the reseller doesn’t transmit special requests such as a wheelchair-accessible room) to expensive (higher rates than the hotel actually charges or hidden fees tacked on to your bill) to potentially trip-ruining (you arrive and discover the booking was never made).
There’s plenty more to look out for. Crooks also operate lookalike websites for airlines and popular travel companies. Scam emails offer promotions such as free flights to get you to give up credit card information or click links that download malware. Fraudsters make up vacation-rental listings, or duplicate real ones, to collect payments for nonexistent bookings.
And think twice about buying a flight voucher on the web. The FBI warns that scam artists use stolen credit card numbers to buy airline tickets then cancel them to get a voucher, which they put up for sale at what looks like a great price. By the time the buyer tries to use the voucher, the airline will likely have discovered the fraud and canceled it.
Warning Signs
A cut-rate hotel or airline offer that seems too good to be true.
A hotel, airline or travel website has odd spelling or grammatical errors, suggesting it may have been created by a scammer in a foreign country.
Do’s
Do book on the official website of a hotel, airline or other travel business, or use a reputable third-party booking site.
Do carefully check a travel website’s URL. Scam sites may use “domain spoofing” tricks such as an extra letter in the address.
Do research on a third-party travel site you haven’t used before. Search for its name plus “review,” “complaint” or “scam” to see if other consumers had bad experiences with the site, and look it up in the Better Business Bureau’s database.
Do look for written policies on canceling or modifying reservations, and confirm them before booking.
Do call the hotel or airline and confirm your reservation after booking on a travel website. If they don’t have a record of your booking, that may signal a problem that it’s best to solve well before you travel.

Courtesy AARP