Scammed via Booking.com - Florida Sunshine Breaks

RLH33

It is becoming clear that I have been scammed by a 'company' advertising a holiday rental, Florida Sunshine Breaks, on Booking.com - it was being booked for July 2026. Sorry if this is long

I booked a property on booking.com in September and it was understood that I needed to pay upfront but that it was free cancellation up until June 2026.  After booking I immediately received an email from noreply@Booking.com to say that I had to make the prepayment or the booking would be cancelled.  I also received a message via booking.com with the payment details and a stripe link to pay.  So I paid with a credit card.   I should say that I had already googled the company and they had a legit looking website, I also couldn't find anything to imply they were a scam company ie no bad reviews on forums etc plus all emails were definitely via Booking.com - I checked carefully.

Two days later I got an email from booking.com to say the booking was cancelled but no reason was given.  I then received an email direct from the company to say it was all a mistake at booking.com's end and they were working hard to get all bookings re-instated but gave me 3 options, cancel with a full refund, continue the booking via booking.com or transfer the booking to them with a 15% discount.  I said to continue with booking.com thanks.  

I was a bit suspicious so I even rang Booking.com to explain what was happening but they were useless, no help whatsoever.

A week went past so I emailed them again, same legit looking response, apologetic and saying that this error was costing them a lot of money and again giving me the three options.  Again I said reinstate and continue via booking.com.

Yesterday I googled them again - the website has now been deleted and I found a thread on reddit describing exactly what has happened to me.  I have now emailed Booking.com to ask for a refund and am waiting for a response.

I also rang Halifax to raise a dispute on my credit card but they said they can't raise a dispute until either a) I cancel the booking and they don't pay me back or b) we turn up on the doorstep and can't get in.  I sort of understand their stance but they were very clear that if I cancel and they think I wasn't due a full refund that they wouldn't get involved - luckily it is all over every email and message that a full refund is due.

I am a bit worried about contacting the scam company direct again to cancel until I have heard back from Booking.com, I wouldn't be surprised if they are gone now though and I get no response.  I am hoping booking.com will accept liability and refund as that seems the simplest way to resolve this - is it realistic though?

I am so, so careful to avoid potential scams and thought I'd done everything to prevent this but it has happened regardless.  Worst bit is I haven't actually paid the credit card bill yet as it isn't due until 1 November so now I have to pay it and hope I'll get the money back!

Brie

Am I right in thinking you paid booking.com, not the rental place?  Then it's booking.com that owes you the refund.  In my opinion.

born_again

Brie said:

Am I right in thinking you paid booking.com, not the rental place?  Then it's booking.com that owes you the refund.  In my opinion.

My guess is these emails were not from booking.com, but company (designed to look like B.com) & the payment went to their payment processer.

Halifax are right. Nothing they can do till you do not get the service.
At least it is still within the 540 days. 

RLH33

Brie said:

Am I right in thinking you paid booking.com, not the rental place?  Then it's booking.com that owes you the refund.  In my opinion.

I paid the company direct which, as far as the credit card is concerned seems to have been best because if I’d paid booking.com they said the credit card wouldn’t pay out.

RLH33

born_again said:

Brie said:

Am I right in thinking you paid booking.com, not the rental place?  Then it's booking.com that owes you the refund.  In my opinion.

My guess is these emails were not from booking.com, but company (designed to look like B.com) & the payment went to their payment processer.

Halifax are right. Nothing they can do till you do not get the service.
At least it is still within the 540 days. 

This is the thing, the emails were from booking.com, I’m used to checking email addresses and these were either from noreply@booking.com or directly through their messaging service.  But I did pay through a link in a message via booking.com but direct to the company.  Apparently this was quite lucky in a way as now I also have the right to claim off the credit card company.

mta999

I did not realise that booking.com allowed payments through links in emails I thought it always had to be by logging on through their system

A_Geordie

RLH33 said:

I also rang Halifax to raise a dispute on my credit card but they said they can't raise a dispute until either a) I cancel the booking and they don't pay me back or b) we turn up on the doorstep and can't get in.

What a load of rubbish from Halifax although not surprising given you are dealing with customer service employees. 

S75 is not a claim or dispute based process by which Halifax get to decide the outcome or when that process should start. It is a joint and several liability which enables you bring a claim against them from the moment a breach of contract or misrepresentation occurs.

The contract breach and/or misrepresentation occurred when the company cancelled your reservation on booking.com without reason or justification. In law, once a contract is terminated, it is not possible to revive the contract. The only way this can work is by entering into a new contract for the same service and so this so-called 'reinstatement' of the booking is effectively a new contract. 

Also to be clear, s75 is not a process dictated by Halifax and there is no legal obligation to follow that process by waiting so many number of weeks. The right is enshrined in law and you are free to send them a letter before action demanding the money back within a reasonable timeframe i.e. 14 days otherwise you can issue legal proceedings. Whether they choose to act on your letter or follow their own policy is up to them. 

It is up to you whether you decide to wait until July 2026 to bring a claim but legal remedy is already available to you. Personally, I would be claiming both breach of contract and misrepresentation. The benefit of claiming misrepresentation is that the burden of proof rests on Halifax to prove that the advertisement was true as opposed to you having the burden of proof showing that there was a breach of contract, even though it's pretty obvious already. 

As an aside, you probably want to bring this back and forth alleged scam to an end and perhaps you should put a time limit on the scam company getting back to you as reinstating this booking and if they don't you will treat it as a breach of contract/misrepresentation.  It really shouldn't be difficult on their end and if it is a genuine booking, it should be reinstated on the same day, not by giving excuses. 

Sounds like a scam, and booking.com seem to be enabling it. If it wasn't for them being headquartered in Netherlands I would have also said you should be claiming against them for continuing to allow the scam to continue and/or being so slow on the investigations. 

RipleyG

 I’m used to checking email addresses and these were either from noreply@booking.com or directly through their messaging service. 

Unfortunately that's no longer a robust enough check, as scammer are able to spoof systems to make it appear that emails are coming from legitimate email addresses. It's commonly being used as a blackmail technique (sending you an email that appears to come from your own email address) but can be used for all sorts of other nefarious purposes.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/beware-of-blackmail-and-sextortion-emails-threatening-to-expose-your-personal-information-a8WkG9v2PQ11

born_again

A_Geordie said:

RLH33 said:

I also rang Halifax to raise a dispute on my credit card but they said they can't raise a dispute until either a) I cancel the booking and they don't pay me back or b) we turn up on the doorstep and can't get in.

What a load of rubbish from Halifax although not surprising given you are dealing with customer service employees. 

S75 is not a claim or dispute based process by which Halifax get to decide the outcome or when that process should start. It is a joint and several liability which enables you bring a claim against them from the moment a breach of contract or misrepresentation occurs.

The contract breach and/or misrepresentation occurred when the company cancelled your reservation on booking.com without reason or justification. In law, once a contract is terminated, it is not possible to revive the contract. The only way this can work is by entering into a new contract for the same service and so this so-called 'reinstatement' of the booking is effectively a new contract. 

Also to be clear, s75 is not a process dictated by Halifax and there is no legal obligation to follow that process by waiting so many number of weeks. The right is enshrined in law and you are free to send them a letter before action demanding the money back within a reasonable timeframe i.e. 14 days otherwise you can issue legal proceedings. Whether they choose to act on your letter or follow their own policy is up to them. 

It is up to you whether you decide to wait until July 2026 to bring a claim but legal remedy is already available to you. Personally, I would be claiming both breach of contract and misrepresentation. The benefit of claiming misrepresentation is that the burden of proof rests on Halifax to prove that the advertisement was true as opposed to you having the burden of proof showing that there was a breach of contract, even though it's pretty obvious already. 

As an aside, you probably want to bring this back and forth alleged scam to an end and perhaps you should put a time limit on the scam company getting back to you as reinstating this booking and if they don't you will treat it as a breach of contract/misrepresentation.  It really shouldn't be difficult on their end and if it is a genuine booking, it should be reinstated on the same day, not by giving excuses. 

Sounds like a scam, and booking.com seem to be enabling it. If it wasn't for them being headquartered in Netherlands I would have also said you should be claiming against them for continuing to allow the scam to continue and/or being so slow on the investigations. 

Halifax will not be using S75. This drops under chargeback.

Although they are still slightly off, as even if you paid Booking.com, there is still a chargeback option. Just a easy cop out for them, saying they do not provide the accommodation. Just move the money.

Had OP paid Booking.com, then there is no S75, as there is no Debtor creditor link.

Given Two days later I got an email from booking.com to say the booking was cancelled but no reason was given

I would say that Booking.com have put a block on co. So they are not enabling the scam any longer. Could be other people have contacted them about payments requested. They have then checked & they had not requested any payments. 

A_Geordie

born_again said:

Halifax will not be using S75. This drops under chargeback.

Bigger fool Halifax. If the OP is seeking a remedy under s75, Halifax may treat the claim as a chargeback, but it doesn't invalidate the the OP's right to seek a remedy under s75. Chargeback may only offer a refund of the amount paid but the OP may have suffered more than just the cost if they had to rebook something similar that has increased in costs due to the booking being closer to the time of arrival than previous. 

born_again said:

Had OP paid Booking.com, then there is no S75, as there is no Debtor creditor link.

I agree, but in this case the payment was made via link provided by the seller using Stripe. Stripe was simply acting as a payment processor on behalf of the seller and therefore there is a debtor-creditor-supplier link. 

born_again said:

Given Two days later I got an email from booking.com to say the booking was cancelled but no reason was given

I would say that Booking.com have put a block on co. So they are not enabling the scam any longer. Could be other people have contacted them about payments requested. They have then checked & they had not requested any payments. 

Maybe, maybe not. The seller could have cancelled it themselves, made up a story about booking.com having cancelled it and then pretending they are trying to reinstate the booking. Seems a little telling that the seller offered the OP an option to transfer the booking with a 15% off, which, if the OP agreed, the OP may need to pay again further pointing towards a scam. If the rental is still available on booking.com that might suggest that they have not suspended this particular seller. 

jackieblack

Today's You and Yours on radio 4 talking about exactly this scam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002krlf