Travel Scams: How to Keep Your Plans Safe

Scam Alert – Don’t take fraudsters with you on your next trip. Here ‘s how to avoid travel scams and keep your travel plans safe by avoiding trip-related rip-offs before, during and after your weekend getaway or family reunion.

Travel scams include phony travel agents selling non-existent tickets, phony airline customer service sites, and phony banking sites.

With peak spring/summer travel season underway, fraudsters are working overtime to tailor their scams to the flying, hotel bookings and online payment schemes.

hand holding cellphone_EvelynKanter — Photo: AARP

Fake Customer Support Sites

Fake customer support sites on social media are growing, which can make a harrowing situation like a cancelled flight or missed connection even worse.

For most of us, the first reaction to a cancelled or delayed flight, or missed connection, or missing luggage, is to hop onto social media for breaking advice and information.

According to cyber security company Malwarebytes, the risk of winding up on a fake site has increased since Twitter-now-X began charging for verified blue checkmarks, so many legitimate accounts no longer show visible means of authentication.

For example, popular European budget airline easyJet cancelled 1,700 flights between July and September 2023 due to air traffic control delays, prompting fraudsters to create fake support accounts.

Such bogus accounts direct victims to fake websites and other portals in an effort to steal credentials, along with any payment data they can scrape and scoop up along the way.

Malwarebytes also reports something like 100 fake Twitter/X accounts using the easyJet branding, including several which have a gold verified check mark which are used exclusively for approved business accounts.

Here’s the main easyJet account, The rest are a combination of “temporarily restricted” accounts, accounts set to private, even to for purchase video games.

Warning – If a site asks you to send your mobile number for assistance, it could open you to fraud, phishing and malware.

Fake Travel Agent Sites

Phony travel agents lie in wait with fake websites and non-existent plane tickets. These sites appear in search engine results or random emails promising fantastic prices. Remember – if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Once you’ve paid and turned up on the day of the flight, or even just tried to check in online the day before, you’re in for a nasty surprise.

The fraudster has merely reserved a seat, as opposed to actually booking the ticket.

Meanwhile, they have cashed in on your payment.

Warning – if you are asked to pay by a direct payment service such as Venmo or Zelle, beware. Legitimate travel agents accept credit cards.

Also check the legitimacy of the reviews.

Warning – Beware iIf all the reviews are glowing five-star tributes, especially if the language is similar in each. Also beware if all the reviews are within the last few months and there’s nothing from a few years ago, indicating a recent scam operation.

Be Careful What You Post Online

Of course you want to share your great trip with your friends. Just do it sensibly. Exact details of your home and how long you will be gone invites burglars.

Warning – Never post a photo of your boarding pass since it features your full legal name, your ticket number, and your passenger name record (PNR). That’s the six-digit alpha-numeric code that is unique to your booking, which scammers can use to engineer their way into your airline or bank account.

Have a safe and memorable trip!

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.