British tourists warned over Booking.com summer holidays scam - 'I lost £900'

British tourists are being warned as they plan their summer holidays after several customers using Booking.com revealed they had fallen victim to scams.

Some scammers told customers they needed to pay additional fees to secure their hotel bookings and ran off with their money.

While some holidaymakers lost small amounts of cash, other customers have been left with massive holes in their bank balances.

One victim revealed they had lost nearly £1,000 after they were fooled by one of the scammers.

Speaking to This is Money Becky, not her real name, revealed that she lost £900 when she booked a trip to Thailand via Booking.com last year - which was later refunded.

Becky booked a hotel for one night in Bangkok, but before she arrived she received a message purporting to be from the hotel who said if she didn’t pay a fee in the local currency her booking would be cancelled.

Following the incident, she said she realised that she might have been able to pick up on the scam sooner.

She said: “I should have picked up that this was more than I paid for the hotel, but it was obviously in a different currency and when you are panicking your booking may be cancelled whilst on route in the middle of the night, it's not your first thought.”

Following the incident, Becky was refunded by Booking.com last month. Another victim, Rhiannon, was told to pay a fee to confirm her booking at a hotel in Blackburn. After first taking £4, the scammers then took £144.72 in the second payment. Unlike Becky, she was able to get a refund from her bank after the ordeal.

In a statement, Booking.com expressed its regret over the incidents and confirmed there had been a breach of security at the website. They said some of their “accommodation partners” had been “directly targeted by very convincing phishing tactics”.

They added that because of the attacks malware was “loaded onto their machines” and “in some cases” gave “unauthorised access to their Booking.com account”.

The spokesperson for the company added that Booking.com would be making changes to ensure it never happened again.

They explained: “While this was not a breach of Booking.com, and the actual numbers of accommodations affected are a small fraction of those on our platform, we have made significant investments to limit the impact, putting new measures in place to protect our customers and support our partners, as the scam has evolved. If a customer ever has any concerns about a payment message, we encourage them to carefully check the payment policy details outlined on the property listing page and in the booking confirmation.

“Customers can also report messages to us via our customer service team, or by clicking on 'report an issue', which is included in the chat function, where we also have clear guidance for customers on how to avoid suspicious activity.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Booking.com said: "We can confirm that this is not a breach of Booking.com’s system. We are aware that some of our accommodation partners have been directly targeted by very convincing phishing tactics deployed by cybercriminals, encouraging them to click on links or attachments, resulting in malware loading onto their machines, and in some cases giving unauthorised access to their Booking.com account. While thankfully the actual numbers of accommodations affected by this scam are a small fraction of those on our platform, we absolutely understand the seriousness for those impacted, which is why our teams have been working diligently to support our partners in securing their systems as quickly as possible and helping any potentially impacted customers accordingly, including with recovering any lost funds.

"Unfortunately phishing attacks pose a significant risk to every business operating in the e-commerce space and we have made significant investments to limit the impact of these ever-evolving phishing tactics as much as possible. This includes, but is not limited to, disabling the ability for links to be shared via messages, the introduction of banners notifying guests that they should not communicate or provide credit card information via chat or email as well as issuing tips and updates to our partners about what they can do to protect themselves and their businesses and how they can work together with us to keep their accounts secure.  

"We also always advise customers to report any suspicious messages to us via our customer service team, or by clicking on 'report an issue', which is included in the chat function, where we also have clear guidance for customers on how to avoid suspicious activity. To further protect themselves, customers can also carefully check the payment policy details outlined on the property listing page and in the booking confirmation."