Australia’s consumer rights watchdog has warned travellers that the scam in ongoing, according to a report on abc.net.au.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recorded 363 reports of scams in 2023 which mentioned Booking.com — one of the most visited travel booking sites in the world. That represents a 600 per cent increase on 2022.
The abc report says criminals have gained access to the Booking.com accounts of some accommodation providers, using them to send messages to guests while posing as properties they have bookings with.
The news service quotes a Queensland woman who was duped out of her credit card details by a fake message purporting to be from a hotel in Turkey that she had booked.
“It’s important to highlight that Booking.com’s back-end systems and infrastructure have not been breached, and the number of accommodations impacted are a small fraction of those on our platform,” a spokesman for Booking.com told the abc.
“At the same time, we understand the importance of keeping the data we are entrusted with secure. That’s why we continue to make significant investments to limit the impact and have put new measures and alerts in place to update and protect our customers, as well as our accommodation partners.”
