There’s nothing like a scam to put a damper on your hard-earned vacation. In this day and age, the opportunities for people to swindle you out of cash or steal your data seem to be endless.
“Travel scams have been around for decades. However, it’s safe to assume that there has been an increase in recent years as technology continues to advance,” Julian Moro, senior vice president and regional security director at International SOS, told HuffPost.
“Because of such technological advances, travelers are easier targets from the booking and planning process, all the way through the end of a trip. While travel scams have increased, the frequency and sophistication of cyber scams has also increased, as has broader awareness and healthy skepticism.”
Indeed, Booking.com’s safety expert reported in June there had been “anywhere from a 500 to a 900% increase” in travel scams over the past 18 months, driven by the rise of artificial intelligence.
“With AI, cybercriminals can scale very easily and at low costs,” said Ally Armeson, executive director of programs at the Cybercrime Support Network. “What used to take them hours now takes seconds, which allows these criminal networks to produce a greater number of less detectable scams.”
Your likelihood of encountering a scam and the nature of the fraud can depend on where you travel as well.
“Scams vary by country, so popular scams in one region might be different from another,” noted travel writer Matthew Kepnes, aka Nomadic Matt. “Fortunately, most scams won’t put you in harm’s way, rather, they’ll just cost you a few bucks and some embarrassment. That said, there are lots of scams out there that can break the bank and lead to you losing your wallet, phone, or other valuables.”
To help vacationers avoid these scenarios, we asked experts to outline some of the most common travel scams and what to look out for.
Fake Travel Document Websites
“One that we saw after the pandemic and certainly still hear about today are the fake travel documents websites,” said Amy Nofziger, the director of victim support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network.
Since many people didn’t travel for a year or two, they let their passports and TSA pre-check status expire. Once bans were lifted and vaccines became readily available, there was a surge in travelers seeking to travel abroad again — and thus needing up-to-date passports and more.
“Many people went online and found look-alike websites that claim…
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