A new and dangerous one fraud take aim and Booking customerswith the platform also being the victim of a scam by a gang that carries out the robbery. In recent weeks, in fact, some criminals have been exploiting the ever-increasing number of bookings through the site to pull off the grande bluff capable of stealing money, taking advantage of the carelessness of vacationers who are willing to pay to block their hotel without paying attention to who is actually contacting them. And in the report of the scam presented by the National Consumers Union, there is a lot of ingenuity, with the online gang sending a message to the victims pretending to be Booking, but directing the unfortunate ones to a clone site, thus managing to get them to pay for a service that has nothing to do with them.
The scam that exploits Booking
The National Consumers Union, after numerous reports, has discovered a major scam to the detriment of vacationers and, by extension, also to those of Booking. The one who carried it out is a gang of criminals who move online, exploiting the desire of Italians to go on vacation.
Ma how does it work? It all starts with the most classic of scenarios, that is, booking a stay with the block of a hotel room or a house where you can spend a few days of relaxation. After booking, however, the scam comes into play.
In fact, the customer who has just made the payment is contacted via message from the property just booked, with the notice that the payment was not successful. So, to solve it, you need to provide the payment method again to confirm the service. The message contains a link that apparently leads to Booking, but if you pay attention you can see that it is a clone site.
But those who don’t have the time to stop and think fall for the scam, with the site that seems the same. Identical in details, with the name of the property just booked with the arrival and departure date and the amount to pay. Nothing can make you think of a scam. And the victims, unaware of what is happening, they take the bait.
By entering the card data, therefore, you proceed to the payment. But in fact for the same reservation two payments are made, one to the real Booking and the other, instead, to the fake one.
Yet another case of phishing with spoofing
Even in this case, as has already happened many times, we are faced with an effective scam that is based on the phishing technique. By deceiving the victim by pretending to be a reliable source, in fact, an ad hoc web page is built to make him believe it and make him fall for the trap.
But not only phishing, because the spoofing technique also comes into play in the scam against Booking customers. As underlined by the National Consumers Union, in fact, the scam is also based on the sender identity manipulation and which makes us believe that the person sending the message was a person we know, our bank or, as in this case, a reliable site where we actually made a purchase.
But how is all this possible? Hackers come into play, managing to disguise the sender with the aim of stealing confidential data. Hotels are the first to be deceived, with the database stolen to carry out the scam.
