His father did not sweat the loss, which happened ten years ago. But since then, a series of travel scams have become a deluge, setting traps from fake websites to phishing emails, fake vacation listings, and hacked loyalty points.
The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies and Travel Advisors, along with other international industry groups, has warned of the proliferation of fraud and fraud attempts in the past few years as artificial intelligence tools expand the scope of crime opportunities.
Online travel giant Booking.com said that by 2024 AI fueled an increase in travel fraud between 500 and 900% in the past 18 months. That same year, Flight Center Canada told The Canadian Press that it worked with Google and other search engines to take down more than 200 fake listings on scam websites just one month after search results began appearing in online inquiries for the travel company.
Travel deals that are too good to be true often indicate fraud
Kalinowski, a financial educator at the Credit Counseling Society, says potential customers should be wary of online ads linked to third-party platforms posing as a hotel or airline. “Scams are rampant. People from all walks of life are falling for them. It’s not a question of intelligence,” he said.
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Some fraudulent websites take pictures and information from hotel, airline, and cruise sites to create the impression that customers are booking through those same companies. “If you book through one of these sites, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the room you paid for, and you may not get it until you get to your destination—and by then, your money may be gone,” warns Toronto-Dominion Bank in a post about travel scams on its website.
Fraudulent postings on vacation rental forums pose similar risks. “You’ll think you’re booking Airbnb or VRBO, and there’s nothing when you get to the other end,” Kalinowski said.
Other signs of a travel scam include deals that seem too good to be true, high-pressure sales tactics, and requests for payment outside of the usual methods, such as wire transfers instead of paying through the Airbnb app, for example.
Kalinowski recalls one ad, allegedly from Southwest Airlines, that brought those two first red flags—a tempting offer and urgency—together by offering free flights to the first 500 people who booked through a certain website. “I don’t know when was the last time you had a free flight,” he said. “It’s been a long time for me.”
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Other possible caveats include requesting payment with gift cards or cryptocurrency, rather than going with secure payment methods like credit cards, which often offer protection in case something goes wrong.
How to protect yourself when booking travel online
To avoid scams, travelers should be careful to visit the hotel, airline, or cruise line’s actual site by directly typing or at least double-checking it rather than clicking on an ad. They can also book through a reputable travel agency. Customers can get more peace of mind by contacting the provider—an airline or hotel, for example—afterward to confirm the reservation.
To avoid fake rentals, check reviews and search Google Street View to check the address, says Pat Pellegrini, CEO of consumer research firm Vividata. A reverse image search can also reveal that those beach front yard photos have been copied from another site.
“There are a lot of bad players, so it makes you do a lot of work,” said Pellegrini. Among those bad actors, loyalty points are always a prime target, often with AI-driven phishing attempts. “The chances of you getting a phishing email asking for your information, and they’re going to keep trying to throw things at you until they’re done, are very high,” Pellegrini said. “Loyalty points are taken the same way.”
Phishing—emails, texts, or phone calls that trick victims into providing bank details or other sensitive information—has seen a sharp increase in recent years, according to Booking.com. Phishing messages are often characterized by the use of urgent or threatening language, requests for financial information, and spelling or grammar errors.
For those defrauded, report to local police, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center, and the platform that hosts the scam—for example, Google or a temporary rental platform—advises RateHub, an online comparison site for financial products. Victims should also contact their bank or credit card company as soon as possible to try to stop payment and any compromised accounts, and monitor suspicious transactions. Victims can then notify the credit bureaus to flag possible changes to their credit file.
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