Researchers at Bitdefender have found that half of all travel-themed spam emails contain scams.
These scams include phishing attempts designed to steal personal and financial information or trick recipients into installing malware. Many of the scams target people seeking rentals on Airbnb or Booking.com.
“This year’s travel-themed scam agenda wouldn’t be complete without phishing campaigns targeting Airbnb and Booking.com hosts and customers,” the researchers write. “Some of the phishing campaigns aimed at tricking hosts into handing over their login credentials, while others deployed a malicious payload onto devices.
The scam emails purporting to come from Airbnb said that user accounts were suspended for security reasons–such as exceeding the maximum number of login attempts. Booking.com phishing emails were designed to look like a message from the online platform notifying hotel managers that one of their guests needed to get in touch with them ASAP to arrange the return of some forgotten belongings.”
Scammers are also impersonating airlines to trick people into filling out surveys in exchange for phony gift cards. The surveys are designed to collect extensive personal information that can be used in follow-on scams.
Bitdefender offers the following advice to help users avoid falling for these attacks:
- Ignore all unrequested or unsolicited emails. If you’re after deals and promotions, ignore those that sound too good to be true and head to official websites and platforms to check for up-to-date listings and deals from legitimate service providers
- Be extremely wary of attachments. Urgent messages associated with attachments should be handled with extreme care. Any booking confirmation you receive via email should be verified by accessing your account on the official platform or app (no accessing links in the email). Whenever in doubt, contact the platform/provider directly
- Hover over any URLs to ensure you’re not directed to look-alike domains”
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