One of the world’s most popular travel agencies has been accused of dismissing serious concerns over the security of its app.
The Australian consumer watchdog revealed a massive surge in Booking.com customers falling victim to fraud scams.
Several customers have come forward to share how they were sent suspicious and threatening messages regarding their accommodation.
A Sydney resident told 7NEWS.com.au that a prompt sent to her via the Booking.com app early on Sunday morning appeared legitimate on first viewing, but was actually one stage of a calculated plan to steal her money.
“The message came through the platform’s messaging system, dressed in all the Booking.com livery with all my personal details, accurate booking details and booking confirmation number,” Catherine Wang explained.
She was asked by someone purporting to be from the Beijing hotel she had booked for February to complete a “fund verification” by clicking a link and transferring over money, even though her stay was meant to be pay-on-arrival.
Wang said she did as requested, but that her credit card was rejected.
Sensing something was wrong, she contacted Booking.com and her hotel in China, with both confirming the message — and the request for payment — was not from them.
Her next move was to contact her bank and cancel her credit card.
Fortunately, she was able to act before her account was raided and she didn’t lose a cent.
Wang knows she “dodged a bullet” but claims when she contacted Booking.com to alert them, they “did not care”.
“Booking.com has complete visibility to these phishing messages,” she claimed.
“They have even assured me, ‘don’t worry, your reservation with the hotel is guaranteed. That message was not sent by the hotel’.
“Yet, shockingly, they don’t seem concerned at all about the fact that their system has been penetrated, and scammers were able to send fake messages targeting their customers inside their system.”
Another Booking.com user took to social media in January with a screenshot of the same dodgy message she was sent.
It told her “you must be verified even if you paid for the reservation” and that she would be debited “the amount of your reservation”, followed by an immediate credit.
“This is a mandatory process. Must be done within 12 hours, otherwise your reservation will be cancelled, and we will not be able to accept you as a guest,” the message said.
The traveller said the message looked “very dodgy” so she called the hotel.
“They confirmed it is a scam and my actual booking is fine,” the traveller said.
“Don’t click on any links, just call your hotel. I’ve been using Booking.com for years and nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”
‘Their system is compromised’
A third person using Booking.com told travellers to watch for a “very convincing scam” where hotels are seemingly asking for card details.
“This is being done via Booking.com’s own app. It looks incredibly convincing. I’ve just had a message myself and it took me a bit of checking to realise it was fake,” the user said.
“Booking.com are blaming the individual hotel’s software. I find that a bit unlikely — it’s pretty obvious their system has been compromised. I’ve removed my stored card details just in case.”
(7 NEWS)
