Email compromised, booking.com

paul2louise

I am not sure if I should be worried. Tonight I received a lot of emails relating to a booking made using my email. It refers to a Peter ****** booking a hotel on 15th - 16th October for £963 using clear pay. There are booking references and Pin codes in the emails. Obviously I didn't click on any of the email links. I tried to phone booking.com. Spoke to several bots getting nowhere. I finally found a number, got a person and tried to explain it's not me, I haven't made the booking and I need to report the problem. I then got another email saying thank you Peter ****** we will let the accommodation know you query but unfortunately it's not refundable on this case.

Firstly if a genuine person has made a mistake using my email then they have a right mess to sort out. But should I be concerned if they have used clear pay using my email as I presume this may be bad if payments are not made.

flaneurs_lobster

Unless you have a Clearpay account I can't see why you need to be concerned.

If you have an account at booking.com it wouldn't be a bad idea to change the password anyways.

Neil_Jones

I doubt the email is compromised.

If this is a Gmail / Googlemail account what a lot of people don't realise is that fred at gmail.com and fred at googlemail.com is the same email address and delivers to the same email inbox. So if you have fred at gmail.com and somebody signs up with fred at googlemail.com and pays via Clearpay on that email, that system will think its a separate email to fred at gmail.com

Back in January I got somebody's booking confirmation for somewhere in Ibiza to my Gmail account (as above), and it was through booking.com as well as it turns out. I just ignored it. Nothing to do with me, so after a while I ended up with the booking confirmation, a discount for accommodation, I knew exactly where they were going, who was going, when they were going, how long for, how much it cost them (four figures), how they paid, and I also got later messages re: the holiday accommodation (check-in time, requirements, etc) and a request for feedback after the holiday end date had passed.

I ignored all this and didn't do anything with any of it..Even the last four digits of the card used to pay were in the email didn't match anything I have and there was no erroneous entries on any bank/card statements I use .If I was really bothered I could have probably just reset the password and logged in to booking.com and cancelled the holiday or something.

Just ignore it. I presume they can get the information straight on booking.com.

Vitor

The hotel accounts of booking.com are regularly compromised. I've had several emails that give correct booking references and then have links to pay a 'supplement' to secure the booking. The links are always to bogus websites.

If you use booking.com, enable 2FA (as with all websites which offer it)

- what a lot of people don't realise is that fred at gmail.com and fred at googlemail.com is the same email address and delivers to the same email inbox-

Also that fr.ed@gmail.com and fred@gmail.com will end up in the same inbox, as google ignores the '.'. So will fred+holidays@gmail.com, of course.

On-the-coast

every year I get at least one miss-addressed email. Usually out by one letter (like an initial) - by which I mean it is my email address but the person being communicated with has a similar real address that’s been mistyped as mine.
I generally ignore them.
unless it’s linked to your booking.com account just ignore and block. There’s nothing else you can do because

A) you won’t pass the security checks to make a change

B) in the remote chance it’s an elaborate scam it will during that contact to helpfully make changes that you’ll be sucked in…

tetrarch

There was a data breach and I have had a few of these. I report every one to Booking.com as and when they happen

Regards

Tet

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170582#Comment_82170582

Why?

And what outcome has this achieved?

Would it not be better to treat it as you would spam and ignore it?

paul2louise

Thanks everyone. I will delete the emails and move on

tetrarch

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170612#Comment_82170612

Because I have a digital record and if my booking is genuine interfered with or hijacked then I have a basis of a complaint against Booking.com

Regards

Tet

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82171404#Comment_82171404

Fair enough, do booking.com acknowledge these reports?

tetrarch

I did the first one through chat with their rep. No response from email

I've chacked back and I've had three, all of which I have reported to the hotel as well individually. Each hotel has responded and acknowledged my report. One gave me a peronalised thanks for the heads-up

Regards

Tet