I never thought I'd almost fall for a holiday scam – don't get caught out by a similar trick

MSE_Kit

Scams can fool even those who, like me, spend their time warning others about them. Despite looking after MSE's 'Stop Scams' guide, I recently found myself uncomfortably close to losing £500 to a sophisticated scam – a chastening and humbling experience.

Read the full blog: 'I never thought I'd almost fall for a holiday scam – don't get caught out by a similar trick'

eskbanker

I also noticed the word 'traveller' was spelt incorrectly.

[...]

Here are some of the tell-tale signs which should've have made me realise earlier that I was dealing with a scam: 

• Spelling mistakes in the communication: For example, 'Dear traveler'.

While poor spelling often signifies scams, the 'traveler' form of the word is the accepted norm in the USA, so that one isn't necessarily indicative of a scam....

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traveler

MSE_Kit

That is very true, good point, Eskbanker. It still stood out at the time though as a possible alarm bell - possibly because I'm accustomed to seeing the English spelling.

LinLui

MSE_Kit said:

That is very true, good point, Eskbanker. It still stood out at the time though as a possible alarm bell - possibly because I'm accustomed to seeing the English spelling.

You clearly haven't met my colleagues. Who appear to be unable to reset Microsoft dictionaries to check UK and not US English. And I have several thousand colleagues!

Voyager2002

One other point: a message about 'suspicious activity' and a threat to "eliminate" your account would have come from booking.com itself, not from a host.

Seahawker24

I had the same experience,  but had the foresight to leave the page and phone the Hotel reception immediately. Even after having spoken to the Hotel, 3 weeks later, I had a repeat. (twice more). The scammers could have cost me £2000+. I ignored it until my holiday had ended. In circumstances such as that, always phone the hotel direct, with the original details, and not through booking.com.

Leavemealone

Just a small point, it appears in this day and age that spelling mistakes are rife. I will not bother with my thoughts on the reason. Many years ago I used to amend these and return email with marks out of 10 but that would be probably deemed illegal these days. However I do think that businesses and I mean some ‘big’ ie local Government need to employ proof readers before printing off many thousands of documents with errors. 

Voyager2002

Leavemealone said:

Just a small point, it appears in this day and age that spelling mistakes are rife. I will not bother with my thoughts on the reason. Many years ago I used to amend these and return email with marks out of 10 but that would be probably deemed illegal these days. However I do think that businesses and I mean some ‘big’ ie local Government need to employ proof readers before printing off many thousands of documents with errors. 

At one point I was suspended from this board for kindly telling posters that they made so many spelling mistakes that it was difficult to know what they were trying to say.

areader

It would probably be a good idea to contact the bank and get them to cancel the card you used to attempt the payment and re-issue one with a completely new number, expiry and CVV. The scammers likely have full details of your current card.

Rosa_Damascena

Fraud has escalated in recent years, it is scary how those remote from us can try to extract our funds! What brought it home to me was the number of cases reported by R4's Money Box, these are listeners that take an active interest in managing their money but are perhaps slightly less digitally sophisticated. @MSE_Kit is anything but, which should serve as a warning to us all.

One thing that has improved greatly is the banks warning mechanisms. Simply creating a pause in the transaction by introducing a further verification step, or something to read gives the brain time to introduce doubt. 

Something that I have found helps me is notifying my bank / cc company (FD in both cases) in advance of any unusual spending patterns I am planning, so they know how much is expected to leave and the intended recipient and also in the interest of full disclosure, the reason for the expenditure. Having them make a note in advance offers me a bit of peace of mind. If thousands were to leave my account to a new recipient without prior notification I am confident that FD would make it difficult for it to leave.

soolin

Voyager2002 said:

Leavemealone said:

Just a small point, it appears in this day and age that spelling mistakes are rife. I will not bother with my thoughts on the reason. Many years ago I used to amend these and return email with marks out of 10 but that would be probably deemed illegal these days. However I do think that businesses and I mean some ‘big’ ie local Government need to employ proof readers before printing off many thousands of documents with errors. 

At one point I was suspended from this board for kindly telling posters that they made so many spelling mistakes that it was difficult to know what they were trying to say.

I am careful about being too pedantic about spelling as I make some howlers myself and also seem to have dodgy fingers as I type letters in the wrong order, however in many instances spelling is important.

Not on here but on another group I have a warning for correcting spelling as apparently it isn’t nice. I am used to the usual wrong spellings, things like cloths for clothes, or broach for brooch but it can affect how someone perceives both the post and the poster. 

My crime was to respond to someone who complained they can’t sell anything on eBay and asked if some of the regulars could look at their listing and help. I took a look and pointed out that their titles made no sense and their items wouldn’t get seen, they were so bad. They were selling with titles like  Kikry boks , ‘Vadiofone sim for fone’ and gold broach . I suggested they were more careful with the spelling, especially with things directly in front of them where they merely had to copy the word across , added more info, most items had no description either and if necessary buddy up with someone to proof read the titles. Apparently I was not being nice and I was suspended for a day to enable me to consider that all the users on that group had different abilities and spelling was a fluid thing and what I learnt in school back in old days isn’t necessarily what they are teaching now. 

I never offered advice again on that group despite being asked, and had the seller on watch for ages and they never did sell more than a couple of things and then just seemed to give up.