Help with fraudulent hotel booking
Help with fraudulent hotel booking
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Discussion

blueovercream

Original Poster:

329 posts

107 months

Yesterday (11:39)
quotequote all
I’m looking for some advice about further steps to take in this slightly unusual situation. In summary

- I was alerted to this through email confirmation by booking website - thanks for your booking at hotel x, etc here’s your confirmation number
- Bookingwebsite app corroborates this, so the booking has been made and is real, but not by me
- Money has left my bank account, transaction labelled as bookingwebsite as it normally would be if I’d made the booking

I’ve called my bank and reported the fraudulent transaction. They are now in the process of recovering the funds and believe will contact the hotel booking website. Card is frozen obviously.

Bookingwebsite only has an AI phone number or a messaging service with reply “within 24 hours”

And the plot thickens because according to the reviews of the property on the website, the “hotel” doesn’t even exist. Attempts to call them on the phone number on the booking would seem to confirm this.

So there are 2 issues
1. A fraudulent booking has been made through my account and using my email address etc
2. The booking itself is for a non-existent property

Has anyone experienced this before and/or can offer any advice on further actions to take?

Thanks


TriumphStag3.0V8

4,693 posts

97 months

Yesterday (12:51)
quotequote all
Never had this before, but is not a way to cancel the booking on the website, or is it a non-refundable booking?

In any case if you do use that website, then change your password and enable 2 factor authentication on it if they support that. Also change your email password to be on the safe side.

Simpo Two

89,237 posts

281 months

Yesterday (13:11)
quotequote all
Why would someone book a hotel that doesn't exist? I can't see a motive.

My e-mail address somehow escaped from booking.com and I got about 100 bounces and replies from hotels all over Europe along the lines of a lost/damaged luggage scam. As far as I can tell nothing happened, at least not to me.

paul_c123

968 posts

9 months

Yesterday (13:14)
quotequote all
Some banks allow you to create a "disposable" debit card (number and CVC) which can be created and shut down fairly easily. Natwest has recently (at least for me, with an app update) introduced this but many others already do it.

I am assuming its a debit card since you say your bank, and not a credit card company, is investigating the fraudulent transaction.

andburg

8,151 posts

185 months

Yesterday (13:21)
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
Why would someone book a hotel that doesn't exist? I can't see a motive.

My e-mail address somehow escaped from booking.com and I got about 100 bounces and replies from hotels all over Europe along the lines of a lost/damaged luggage scam. As far as I can tell nothing happened, at least not to me.
Easy if the booker is the “hotel”

Somewhatfoolish

4,904 posts

202 months

Yesterday (13:48)
quotequote all
blueovercream said:
I m looking for some advice about further steps to take in this slightly unusual situation. In summary

- I was alerted to this through email confirmation by booking website - thanks for your booking at hotel x, etc here s your confirmation number
- Bookingwebsite app corroborates this, so the booking has been made and is real, but not by me
- Money has left my bank account, transaction labelled as bookingwebsite as it normally would be if I d made the booking

I ve called my bank and reported the fraudulent transaction. They are now in the process of recovering the funds and believe will contact the hotel booking website. Card is frozen obviously.

Bookingwebsite only has an AI phone number or a messaging service with reply within 24 hours

And the plot thickens because according to the reviews of the property on the website, the hotel doesn t even exist. Attempts to call them on the phone number on the booking would seem to confirm this.

So there are 2 issues
1. A fraudulent booking has been made through my account and using my email address etc
2. The booking itself is for a non-existent property

Has anyone experienced this before and/or can offer any advice on further actions to take?

Thanks
If you use the login details for anything else you should assume your account on said "anything else"s are compromised.

It might be useful to put your details into https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Not to be a debbie downer but this might turn into a big hassle for you depedning on how "disciplined" you've been about cyber security.

cliffords

2,645 posts

39 months

Yesterday (13:55)
quotequote all
I just looked at that link and think no way would I put my email address in there. Unfortunately that's where we have got to. It may well be legitimate.
I will never know

Edited by cliffords on Wednesday 6th August 22:16

bad company

20,627 posts

282 months

Yesterday (13:57)
quotequote all
I’d be asking the bank to replace the card used in the transaction op. I’d also change your passwords and PIN.

E-bmw

11,139 posts

168 months

Yesterday (14:23)
quotequote all
andburg said:
Simpo Two said:
Why would someone book a hotel that doesn't exist? I can't see a motive.

My e-mail address somehow escaped from booking.com and I got about 100 bounces and replies from hotels all over Europe along the lines of a lost/damaged luggage scam. As far as I can tell nothing happened, at least not to me.
Easy if the booker is the hotel
^^^^ Wot 'e said.

Freakuk

3,975 posts

167 months

Yesterday (15:34)
quotequote all
To complicate matters...

I have a friend who owned a hotel on a Scottish Island, after Covid he struggled with getting the occupancy numbers back to where they were, he decided to use a very popular booking site to help increase his bookings - which worked perfectly.

However, he was telling me that regardless of whether the customer pays in full or on the day he doesn't get any money from the booking (minus the booking fee) for 90 days after the booking has been completed.

So with this in mind I'm unsure how this scam would work.

hidetheelephants

30,518 posts

209 months

Yesterday (19:46)
quotequote all
Freakuk said:
To complicate matters...

I have a friend who owned a hotel on a Scottish Island, after Covid he struggled with getting the occupancy numbers back to where they were, he decided to use a very popular booking site to help increase his bookings - which worked perfectly.

However, he was telling me that regardless of whether the customer pays in full or on the day he doesn't get any money from the booking (minus the booking fee) for 90 days after the booking has been completed.

So with this in mind I'm unsure how this scam would work.
Never mind the OP, that's a fking scam right there. Is the booking site run by Tesco?

Somewhatfoolish

4,904 posts

202 months

Yesterday (21:51)
quotequote all
cliffords said:
I just looked at that link and think way would I put my email address in there. Unfortunately that's where we have got to. It may well be legitimate.
I will never know
It is. I mean don't just take my word for it obviously, look it up smile