It will happen to you: you are happy with your travel suitcase in front of your holiday address, it turns out that the beautiful villa that you booked will not exist at all. It didn’t make much difference if it had happened to radio presenter John van Vroenhoven, he told this week in his radio program Keeigoeiemorgen! from Omroep Brabant. “All alarm bells went off.”
John spontaneously wanted a nice week away in the Netherlands or Belgium. “The range was limited, because there was already a lot of full booked,” he says. “Monday I found a beautiful, luxury villa with a private swimming pool in Belgium on Booking.com. This cost 2,400 euros for seven days. It already felt a bit too good to be true.”
Before he could book, he first had to apply. “A few hours later I received an email from the owner: the villa was still available. Only due to ‘synchronization problems’ between Booking.com and the agenda of the owner did I have to send an email to another email address to reserve the house.”
John looked at the photos on the booking platform again. “There was a marina in the background, while according to the ticket, the villa is in the middle of a residential area. I looked at Google Maps, but did not find the house. Then all the alarm bells went off.”
“It’s so easy to kick in.”
He decided to send an email to reserve the villa. “Booking.com is a serious platform. I received a link for the payment, after which everything would be complete.” In the meantime, the landlord increased the pressure. “He said there was a lot of enthusiasm for the villa and advised to make the payment quickly.”
Because he felt that something was wrong, John checked the link via a website. “The link was not safe: it turned out to be a fraudulent URL (ed. Internet address) where you run the risk of your computer being hacked. It’s so easy to kick in.”
The latter agrees CyberSecurity expert Dave Maasland in the radio program. “Nobody expects this on such a platform as Booking.com. People who are not so digitally skilled are 100 percent certainly victims of this.”
Maasland describes the worldwide -known booking platform as ‘one big marketplace’. “Sometimes the criminals break into the account of the landlord. For example, they take over everything, including the good reputation and reviews that you have built up for years. Ai-generated photos are increasingly being used that seem very real.”
“Criminals are getting better in circumventing checks.”
According to him, it happens on more websites. “Think of Marktplaats itself, but also, for example, websites for ticket sales.” But how is it possible that scammers can go their own way on Booking.com, which is still seen as reliable? “Booking.com wants to put new places offered on its website as soon as possible,” explains Maasland. “Checking whether such a place really exists is increasingly automated. No one is involved. Criminals are getting better in circumventing those checks.”
Booking.com announced on Thursday that the accommodation that John’s eye could be booked can no longer be booked on the platform. “Unfortunately this is not a new problem,” says a spokesperson. “Online fraud and cyber crime have been a great care in many sectors for years, including the travel industry.”
Due to strict controls, the booking website can, according to him, detect and block the vast majority of the suspicious activities before customers come into contact with it. That it sometimes goes wrong, as in the example of John, he calls ‘a rare case’. “Given the millions of bookings that we process every week,” says the spokesperson. “If a customer is ever worried about accommodation on our platform, we recommend that you contact our customer service immediately.”
“It is very important to pay attention to urgency.”
To prevent you from being scammed, you have to take a few things into account, according to Dave Maasland. “It is very important to pay attention to urgency. People are forced to quickly make a decision: you have to take action now, because otherwise you will miss the deal. That is exactly what criminals use.”
Maasland recommends taking a step back in such a case and always contacting the booking platform. “Do research himself,” he also advises. “See if an accommodation can be found on multiple websites and check whether one can find something on Google Maps.” Finally, the expert points to protecting your own accounts. “Not only use a strong password, also put on two -step verification everywhere, an extra security for your online accounts.”
