It's Still the Holiday Season, Beware of These Three Types of Scams When Traveling

Illustration of traveling scams (photo: Kaspersky)

JAKARTA - During the holiday season, many people around the world start looking for holiday destinations by preparing hotels and accommodation at affordable prices.

To help users avoid fraud related to fraudulent offers for airline tickets, hotel bookings, and cheap vacation packages. Kaspersky researchers outline common fraudulent schemes used to lure victims.

Ticket fraud

Kaspersky experts found many fraudulent sites claiming to offer cheap air tickets. Phishing pages like these often imitate the services of well-known airlines and ticket aggregators. In fact, it displays real flight details by submitting search queries to legitimate aggregators and presenting the information.

However, instead of delivering the promised ticket, this scam aims to steal your money and exploit your personal information for malicious purposes. This may include selling detailed banking information and identifying information on the dark web.

Accommodation scam

According to Kaspersky, one of the most common accommodation scams is fake online registration for accommodation or apartment rentals. Usually, online fraudsters create attractive advertisements on popular platforms, show the best photos and offer low prices to lure tourists. However, once the booking was made and payment sent, the accommodation was found to be fake. These scams can lead to identity theft, unauthorized transactions and other malicious activities.

Survey and giveaway scams

The third type of scam is survey and giveaway-related scams. Usually, online scammers create fake websites or send emails claiming that participants can earn big prizes, by completing travel surveys.

But in fact, these surveys are designed to collect personal information, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and even financial information, under the guise of eligibility requirements or prize distribution.

Finally, promised prizes are never delivered, and the information provided is used for fraudulent purposes, such as identity theft or unauthorized access to banking accounts. In such cases, cybercriminals use the victims themselves as a tool to further spread the scam.