Popular travel websites warn customers about phishing scams
Customers of popular travel websites are being targeted by criminals who, using Phishing scams, are trying to steal users' personal data.
Popular travel websites have sounded the alarm, drawing the attention of their users, and are trying to inform them about the fake emails and SMS messages being used to scam victims.
Among the companies targeted by hackers are popular online travel agencies: Hotels.com, Expedia and Travelocity.
Some users have already informed the companies that they received a phone call informing them that they had won $2,600 to take a free trip, then were asked for a valid credit card to "book" the resort.
In the malicious messages indicated by users, the company detected suspicious activity in their accounts that caused unauthorized access to customer information (such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, and travel reservations).
A significant number of travelers using Hotels.com were recently scammed into revealing their personal information. The situation is similar for Expedia, with the company's head of communications, Sarah Gavin, confirming that the information was not stolen from Expedia, but rather from an unauthorized third party.
The report published by the company confirmed that the affected users had used Expedia's system to recently make a reservation at a specific hotel, which was controlled by criminals.
“Users’ personal information was stolen by a criminal who successfully compromised a specific hotel’s system, and after successfully intercepting the hotel’s login credentials, he then stole the names and other personal information of consumers who had recently used Expedia’s system to make a reservation at that hotel,” the company’s report states.
The companies that operate the travel websites encouraged users to take protective and preventive measures against suspicious and malicious messages, also informing them that it is very important to remember that these companies will never ask for their customers' personal information.
