[Albion] Anyone booked through Booking.com?

[Laughing Gull]

Here's the conversation. Apologies for language.

 

[London Irish]

I’ve used them a few times now, never had any problems

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Used them weekly between 5-8 years ago without issue but am not working that pattern anymore. Will admit since then if I'm ever away I use Agoda instead. Not sure if that's big in Europe?

 

[bhafc99]

Yikes. I'm just booking a hotel in Seville through Bookings.com! Which one?

Hotel Zaida.

In fairness, this is the first time I’ve had a scam attempt in years of using booking.com without incident.

 

[Gwylan]

I used them to book a room for the Marseille game: when I got there, no-one was around so I had to find somewhere else at very short notice. I got no refund.

Won't use them again

 

[Estonian Seagull]

Had a similar experience in October last year. Really convincing and paid out EUR 1’000. The e-mail even showed up on the booking.com platform itself so it looked legitimate. Smelt something wasn’t right and called my bank before the credit card payment had been cleared. I saw from my bank statement that the payment was going to a cryptocurrency account at Banxa.com in NL. Also contacted booking.com about this. Within a few days, booking.com gave me a full refund which is fair play from them. The Japanese hotel had had its booking system hacked. Meanwhile, all my bank had done was to formulate a letter to me stating that they don’t take any responsibility since I had approved it with my online secure payment code. They refused to contact Banxa.com to push forward a fraud case. Still use booking.com although very wary of any e-mails I receive supposedly from them.

 

[Gabbafella]

We use them every time we go away, never had any issues. But I only ever used the app and would never click a link in an email.

 

[arewethereyet?]

I booked my entire 2 week road trip in Canada, Alberta and BC last October through booking.com, didn’t have a single problem, have used them for years and never an issue.
*accommodation only* always book flights direct with the airline

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I have used them in the past and it was fine. Sounds to me like the fault here lies with the accommodation itself rather than the website. Discount offers/points etc are just how they operate. Air bnb do something similar with discounts. When we booked an Easter break with them last week the ultimate price we paid was lower than the advertised price.
Like others I am unsure why people would use booking.com for flights or click on links in unsolicited e mails. Just use the app if you want to book something through them.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Any legit messages from the hotel should be on the website as well

We use them every time we go away, never had any issues. But I only ever used the app and would never click a link in an email.

The fake messages are from the app and website itself mixed in-between the ones that are genuinely from the hotel (confirming booking details and all that). That's why this is so shit. To all intents and purposes, it's come from the right place with all the right details.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I’m probably just repeating what’s already been posted but yes, I had similar with The Amsterdam trip. Being suspicious as I am on line, I contacted the hotel directly and as expected was told it was a scam, I contacted booking.com however the scammers continued to message me. I just ignored. I haven’t got a copy of the messages as I deleted the app.

 

[bhafc99]

Here's the email I got, with my annotations.

 

[Estonian Seagull]

Here's a snippet from a genuine booking.com message I received relating to a recent trip I took. They also included a link for payment and a cancellation warning.

 

[Seaview Seagull]

Here's a snippet from a genuine booking.com message I received relating to a recent trip I took. They also included a link for payment and a cancellation warning.View attachment 177455

You are sure that's genuine? I use booking.com often without incident but normally the only choice is pay at the time of booking or pay the hotel on arrival. I have never seen a delayed payment option.

 

[Estonian Seagull]

You are sure that's genuine? I use booking.com often without incident but normally the only choice is pay at the time of booking or pay the hotel on arrival. I have never seen a delayed payment option.

100% sure. I called them when i received the message since I was a bit paranoid from my previous experience. They confirmed it was legitimate and I then paid it. I stayed at the apartment and there were no problems. The only difference in the text between this message and the scam one was that this one included a booking.com pin code as well as a confirmation code whereas the scam one only included the confirmation code.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have used them in the past to get ideas...then go direct to the hotel. Not keen with using these types of websites for a number of reasons.

 

[PeterT]

There are so many of these frauds out there.

I, so far, have been good at spotting them. The one I like the most is when they phone up to engage you in conversation pretending to be from your credit card company and asking you at various points in the conversation for the key details from your card. If I have time to spare, I can waste loads of their time with spurious information, wrong card details, telling them what a great job they are doing keeping us all safe from fraudsters and then, when I’ve had enough at the end, give them a few of the shorter words in my vocabulary.

I’ve done similar when my mum has had a call, and said that I am her lawyer and deal with all of her financial affairs too, so please I have some questions for you before I answer yours. After a very short time they hang up and don’t call again!

 

[PeterT]

Used them weekly between 5-8 years ago without issue but am not working that pattern anymore. Will admit since then if I'm ever away I use Agoda instead. Not sure if that's big in Europe?

Agoda are ok, but twice now they have cancelled the hotel on me at the last minute due to ‘overbooking’ and offered something not remotely comparable as an alternative. So I use them more sparingly ever since those incidents, figuring that once may have been unfortunate but twice suggests it’s a bit more than that.

 

[Commander]

Here's the email I got, with my annotations.

View attachment 177452

The thing I never understand about this stuff- how hard would it actually be to send one out that doesn't have mistakes in it? You only need to relatively competent English speaker to type the email. I don't understand how people can go through all the hassle and risk of creating the scam, and not even getting the wording right!

 

[Bozza]

The thing I never understand about this stuff- how hard would it actually be to send one out that doesn't have mistakes in it? You only need to relatively competent English speaker to type the email. I don't understand how people can go through all the hassle and risk of creating the scam, and not even getting the wording right!

There's a theory to this stuff that the spelling and grammatical mistakes are entirely intentional because, when you're sending out a high volume of these things, you only want to engage with the gullible who don't notice detail.

So, by including obvious mistakes, you immediately filter out those who are likely to catch on, leaving you with those who might follow all the way through.

As there is generally a manual element to these scams, you only want to invest time in those likely to fall for it completely.