The owner of an accommodation business at Karamea said she understood all of her customers who had booked through Booking.com had been targeted by the scam. Photo / Mike Dickison
The owner of an accommodation business at Karamea said she understood all of her customers who had booked through Booking.com had been targeted by the scam. Photo / Mike Dickison
Customers of a South Island accommodation provider have been the target of a credit card phishing scam on an international travel site as part of a worldwide swindle.
The owner of Riverstone Retreat Karamea said she understood all of her customers who had booked through Booking.com had been targeted bythe scam.
“My phone has been off the hook all day.
“To the guests, it looked as though it had come from myself, but that wasn’t the case.”
She said she had heard from at least 20 people who had been impacted.
The business has been using Booking.com for six years and hadn’t had this issue before, but one bank told a customer it wasn’t the first time a similar scam had happened on Booking.com.
“[Customers] they book with Booking.com because they think it’s [trustworthy] but they can be accessed.”
The scammers had all the details of the bookings, so she believes her Booking.com account was compromised.
“I called Booking.com... and they told me to change my password.”
Incidents of the same scam targeting different accommodation providers on Booking.com around the world have been reported this year.
Customers of a South Island accommodation provider have been the target of a credit card scam on Booking.com. Photo / Supplied
Last month, Nine News Australia wrote about a nearly identical scam, and Booking.com told it that its system was not compromised, but that the accounts of some of its accommodation partners were affected.
One Riverstone Retreat Karamea customer told the Herald about the close call he had with the scam.
“I fell into the trap this morning. Before my first coffee.”
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he travels through Booking.com quite a bit and it wasn’t uncommon for him to receive emails from the business.
“I get emails about the bookings that I’ve made... The message I got yesterday at 10pm said you just got a new message from Riverstone Retreat Karamea.
“Your booking might be cancelled due to an error during verification of your payment method. You can verify your payment method through a personal link.”
While the email came from an official Booking.com email, the man now thinks the message itself had been sent on Riverstone Retreat Karamea’s account by a scammer.
“The first thing I noticed that was slightly unusual was that the payment that was listed for the accommodation was actually in euros, but I went ahead with my credit card details and then got a please wait, this may take a few minutes page.
“I had a look at my credit card online and I see there was a transaction and [null] dollar transaction from an article McKenzie Pest Services in the USA.
“I rang the bank, and they said well, that $0 is basically testing the validity of the credit card information they’ve got and very soon afterwards, there would be a substantial withdrawal.
“We cancelled the card, I’ve got a new one coming and it was just a close shave.”
He felt like Booking.com didn’t take the scam very seriously, and didn’t take enough accountability.
“I rang Booking.com and I said, you know what’s going on? And they said, Well, that is an email that’s come from from the venue, the accommodation venue via our website. And it’s obviously a scam.
A spokesperson for Booking.com said they are aware that some accommodation partners were recently targeted by phishing emails.
“While the security breach was not on Booking.com we know that the accounts of some of our accommodation partners were affected. It’s important to highlight that neither Booking.com’s backend systems or infrastructure have been breached in any way.
“We’re following up with Riverstone Retreat Karamea to ensure they have all the information they need to prevent similar incidents from happening again.”
Jaime Lyth is an Auckland-based reporter who covers crime. She joined the Herald in 2021 and has previously reported for the Northern Advocate.
