“There was a problem with your payment”: Booking and Airbnb hit by a wave of scams, Booking explains

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Be careful if you book accommodation on Booking or Airbnb. Both platforms are the subject of a major scam. It relies on a ploy that is as simple as it is effective: a fake payment error message.

Victims receive an email or text message that appears to be legitimate, informing them that a ’problem has occurred with the payment of their reservation”. This message, designed to sow panic and encourage rapid action, redirects users to a fraudulent website, an almost perfect clone of the official Booking or Airbnb website.

The level of customization is such that even the most seasoned users can be fooled to take.Telekopye cybercriminals don't just create generic pages, they use real data, probably obtained through data leaks or the purchase of hacked accounts on criminal forums. So, when a victim accesses the fake site, they will find precise information about their booking: arrival and departure dates, price, place of stay. This attention to detail is often enough to silence the last suspicions of the most suspicious users.

Perfect copies

“Scammers mainly target users who have recently made a booking without immediate payment, or those whose payment is very recent. This method makes the scam particularly difficult to detect, as the information is highly personalized and the sites appear authentic in every way, says Radek Jizba, a researcher at Eset, a cybersecurity company that closely monitors Telekopye's activities.

The ultimate goal of this manipulation is, of course, to trick victims into re-entering their bank details, under the pretext of “correcting” the fictitious payment problem. Once they have this information, the scammers can empty bank accounts or make fraudulent purchases with impunity.

What particularly worries cybersecurity experts is the democratization of these scam techniques. Telekopye is not just a group of hackers, it is a real “toolbox” made available to scammers, even without advanced technical skills. This industrialization of fraud allows criminal networks with thousands of members to operate on a large scale, causing financial losses in the millions of euros.

How to avoid being trapped?

Faced with this threat, vigilance remains the best defense. Experts recommend always checking the URL of the site before entering sensitive information. A redirection to an address different from that of the official site should immediately arouse suspicion. It is also essential to never click on links received by email or SMS to access your account; it is better to type the site address directly into your browser.

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Booking and Airbnb, for their part, are issuing increasing warnings to their users.Both platforms insist that they will never ask for payment information to be re-entered via a link sent by email or SMS. They encourage their customers to contact their customer service directly if they have any doubts about a message received.

Booking explains

Following the publication of our article, Booking wished to exercise its right of reply. Here is the official statement from Booking following this cyberattack.

“We know that some customers have been affected by scams. This is not a breach of Booking.com's systems, but a coordinated fraud against customers.

As a responsible travel company, we are aware of the consequences of such scams by malicious third parties for our business, our accommodation partners and our customers. We constantly review and strengthen our own security controls, provide advice and training to our accommodation partners and regularly remind our customers that they should never share their personal data with our accommodation partners and that they should prefer to pay through our platform, which offers a guided and secure payment process.

We continue to make significant investments to minimize the impact of these evolving tactics. Through our rigorous controls and machine learning capabilities, we are able to detect and block the vast majority of suspicious activity before it impacts our partners or customers.

In addition to constantly monitoring and blocking new threats, our Account Security team is also implementing new measures to ensure the security of our customers’ and partners’ accounts. For example, if we detect suspicious activity on a hotel’s account, we act quickly, including immediately disabling the ability to share links via messages on our platform, to prevent fraudulent payment requests. In addition, we share with our partners tips and best practices to protect themselves and their businesses, as well as the latest information on malware and phishing, so they are aware of the latest trends we are seeing.

Given the millions of bookings we facilitate each week, these cases are fortunately very rare. However, we take each case very seriously and, in order to comply with our regulatory obligations, we investigate each incident and provide regular updates on these frauds to the authorities.

If a traveler has doubts about a payment message received, we encourage them to check the payment policy of the accommodation, available on the latter's listing page, or to contact us directly. Our customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

• A wave of sophisticated scams targets Booking and Airbnb users
• Scammers are using real booking data to create very convincing fraudulent sites
• Booking and Airbnb have warned their customers, but vigilance remains the best defense against these scams

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