Tag: Fake Websites

Holiday Scams

tinsleyNET Admin
Malta Beach

A recent report from ABTA stated that in 2018, nearly £7million was lost to holiday fraudsters from UK holidaymakers.

Common scams

Bank Transfer Fraud

Information from ABTA, Action Fraud and Get Safe Online

Sun

Number of reported holiday related scams :
Over 5,000

Average individual loss per person:
£1,380

Largest individual loss:
£425,000

Total amount lost to holiday scammers:
£7,000,000

Link to more details: https://www.abta.com/news/new-report-reveals-seven-million-pounds-lost-holiday-booking-fraud

With holidaymakers looking to secure a cheap family holiday, the temptation to use less reputable websites offering deals to popular locations is great, and that’s where the scammers spend most of their time.

Airline Tickets

Over half of the reported scams were related to the sale of airline tickets. The largest single loss per individual was in August 2018 with an individual losing £425,000 in a scam.

While beach holidays are included in the airline ticket scams, as most people still use package holidays this is less lucrative for the scammers. Instead they target people booking just flights to visit friends and family in destinations like Africa and India.

Religious trips are a particular target with individual losses of £10,000 per person being reported.

The UK has specific regulations in place governing the sale of airline tickets, if your sales don’t comply to these regulations, it’s highly likely that they are going to be a scam.

Accomodation

A quarter of the scams reported were related to accomodation.

Professional looking websites offering up-market villas for rent in popular locations such as France, Spain and mediterranean islands use photos of genuine villas but without the permission or knowledge of the owners.

Fake Websites

Fake websites are so professional looking now that it’s difficult to tell them from genuine pages.

Check the website address your on, TUI’s website www.tui.co.uk is genuine, www.tui-ukdeals.com is not. Head over to GetSafeOnline to get more tips on identifying fake websites.

“The cost to victims is not just financial; this crime causes very real emotional distress. Fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target destinations and times of year when demand is high and availability limited, as they know people will be looking for good deals. As victims often find out just before they travel or even in resort that they have been defrauded, it can then be very difficult and expensive to obtain a legitimate replacement booking compounding the financial costs and emotional distress suffered by victims.”

Mark Tanzer ABTA Chief Executive
https://www.abta.com/news/new-report-reveals-seven-million-pounds-lost-holiday-booking-fraud

Top Tips

  • Reviews. Do some research, don’t rely on a small handful of reviews. The scammers will often try to flood review sites with fake reviews, look for posts that appear fake.
    If it is a scam, there’s a good change other users have posted details of their experience with them.
    If you have a bad experience with a company, leave comments with honest reviews for others to read, but remember that what some people might feel is a fraud, others might accept as part and parcel of the experience.
  • ABTA. Check a company is registered on the abta website www.abta.com
  • Pay Safe. Use your credit card to pay for bookings, be wary of requests for payment by bank transfer.

Websites

Report any fraud you suffer to the Police at Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Expert advice is available at Get Safe Online: https://www.getsafeonline.org/shopping-banking/holiday-and-travel-booking/

Find more tips from ABTA: http://abta.com/fraud

Fraud Aware

tinsleyNET Fraud Awareness
Fraudsters see major incidents as an opportunity to take advantage of you

Fraudsters Don’t See Tragedy, They See Opportunity

After any major incident, many people turn to the internet to find out more information and to see if there is any way in which they can help. The majority of us will be shocked by tragic events as we see them unfold, more so when the incident is closer to home.

Unfortunately, the fraudsters know this, and don’t look at these events with sympathy, but look at them as an opportunity to scam people. Make it second nature to verify the sources of information you share, think before you click.

Scams

tinsleyNET Social Media Services

Scams that crop up after an incident can vary and take on many forms. They can be from people just out to harvest ‘likes’ by creating and sharing memes or making up stories about fictitious people ‘who were there’ when it happened, or they can be criminals out to pinch your bank details.

Often, the fraudsters will use social media to share a photo with a sentimental message or outraged caption, and will use any tactics then can to pull on your heart strings to get you to forward or re-share the post.

Expect them to exploit photos of affected people and paint sad stories to get you to hand over your money.

Who To Trust

Use some common sense when deciding if a link you’re about to click is genuine.

  • If the link came via email or instant messenger, check with the email sender that they intended to send it, they many not be aware if their account has been compromised.
    • This is doubly important if the email or message says something along the lines of “I’ve changed my bank details” – double check in person or over the phone. This is a common and well known scam.
  • Fake News is a massive problem at the moment and unlikely to go away, websites like Metafact, Full Fact and Redaction Watch are just a few that can help you identify fake news. (Read more about these sites here)
  • Check the validity of any links before you click them, it may say www.TrustWorthyWebsite.com in the text, but hover your mouse over it to find out where it’s really linked to first.
  • If a URL shortener has been used, (the link looks like sh.ort/Wg5SDS or something similar) check the full-length URL on the shortner website used, or use a trusted third-party website like www.checkshorturl.com
  • Check with someone in authority. If a Just Giving page has been setup by Bob claiming that he’s raising money for the recent incident, how can you be sure your donation is going where he says? Just because he mentions various valid aid organisations in the link does not mean they endorse him or have any connection to him.
  • Seen a photo of a young child with a caption “This person is missing, please share this link to help find her” – think…
    How is sharing this link going to help find someone?
    Is it at all likely that the missing person or someone they know is reading Social Media?
    Can you be sure that person is really missing? is there a police reference number?
    Check the facts first!
  • Look at the date when the first share was made, was it recently or several months ago?
  • Is the source of the information genuine and trustworthy? Just because someone says that ‘The Police have asked…’ doesn’t mean it’s true. If it is true then there should be a link back to an official page with verifiable details. Don’t take someone else’s word as fact without checking it first.
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We can help you sort the truth from the lies, and show you how to identify fraudulent emails and links. We can even configure and install hardware designed to filter out the fake news.