Ten ways to avoid scams when booking travel

The news article titled 'Ten ways to avoid scams when booking travel' discusses the increasing prevalence of scams in the travel booking industry, particularly on the platform Booking. com. The article seeks advice from two experts in the fields of cyber-security and travel fraud to provide readers with tips on how to protect themselves when booking travel. One of the experts, Isabel Wagner, an associate professor in cyber security at Switzerland's University of Basel, shares her personal experience of receiving a fraudulent email from a cyber-criminal posing as the hotel she had just booked. Despite the email's convincing appearance, Wagner was not deceived due to several suspicious elements in the email.

The article reports that hackers have been increasingly targeting businesses that use Booking. com. The hackers initiate their scam by sending a phishing email to hotels, tricking the staff into clicking a link that downloads malware onto the hotel's computers. The malware then searches for customers with Booking. com reservations, and the hackers proceed to email these customers directly. Any payments made by the customers are redirected to the hackers instead of the hotel. This scam has proven to be highly profitable for the hackers.

A survey conducted by computer security software company McAfee found that one in three travellers have been scammed or know someone who has been a victim of a scam. A third of these victims lost $1,000 or more before their holiday even began. To help travellers protect themselves from such scams, the article provides ten tips from cyber-security and travel fraud experts.