Booking.com

[Hawaiian]

Has anyone experienced a fake Booking.com website?  

[thesetat]

i do not think if you type and go to booking.com that your web browser will take you to a fake site. however, you there have been some reports that some listings about places for rent were scams. 

[Hawaiian]

Malwarebytes' newsletter has a warning about this.  It explains how the scammers redirect you to their phony website and then infect your computer with a Trojan virus.

[jas007]

I'm not sure how they do the redirection, but I've already registered on most of those travel sites.  Booking.com, Hotels.com, Agoda.com, Orbitz.com, etc.  The login passwords are stored in my Password manager, and when I log on, the site already has my information.  Past trips, etc.  Maybe it would be smart to sign up now for the travel sites, as a precaution from ending up on a fake site later. 

[Hawaiian]

25 minutes ago, jas007 said:

I'm not sure how they do the redirection, but I've already registered on most of those travel sites.  Booking.com, Hotels.com, Agoda.com, Orbitz.com, etc.  The login passwords are stored in my Password manager, and when I log on, the site already has my information.  Past trips, etc.  Maybe it would be smart to sign up now for the travel sites, as a precaution from ending up on a fake site later. 

Just a few days ago I phoned Priceline's Customer Support about cancelling a booking because the one of the flights had been removed from the itinerary with no offer of an alternate flight.  I was told in order to receive my refund I would have to pay the tax which had already been included in the price of the ticket.  I decided to play along with this ridiculous requirement.  My bank refused to pay.  I then received a suspicious email saying my booking had been cancelled and I  needed to pay the tax to receive my refund.  The next day I called Priceline again only to discover that there was no record of my previous conversation and that my booking had not been cancelled.  The agent helped me to cancel the booking and got permission from the airline to refund my payment in full with no cancellation fees.  I then forwarded the suspicious email to Priceline.  I received an email from Priceline confirming receipt and also stated that my refund was being processed.

I checked my phone to make sure that I had dialed the correct number for Priceline.  The numbers matched.  The mystery is how was my phoned call hacked by a scam artist.  Any possible explanations?

[jas007]

40 minutes ago, Hawaiian said:

Just a few days ago I phoned Priceline's Customer Support about cancelling a booking because the one of the flights had been removed from the itinerary with no offer of an alternate flight.  I was told in order to receive my refund I would have to pay the tax which had already been included in the price of the ticket.  I decided to play along with this ridiculous requirement.  My bank refused to pay.  I then received a suspicious email saying my booking had been cancelled and I  needed to pay the tax to receive my refund.  The next day I called Priceline again only to discover that there was no record of my previous conversation and that my booking had not been cancelled.  The agent helped me to cancel the booking and got permission from the airline to refund my payment in full with no cancellation fees.  I then forwarded the suspicious email to Priceline.  I received an email from Priceline confirming receipt and also stated that my refund was being processed.

I checked my phone to make sure that I had dialed the correct number for Priceline.  The numbers matched.  The mystery is how was my phoned call hacked by a scam artist.  Any possible explanations?

Maybe things at Priceline are a little chaotic? They're part of a larger group of travel websites, like Agoda, Booking.com, and so on.  

 

In any event, I think you can set up some of the sites so that you get instant notification in a push message of any change to your itinerary.  So I'd set that up.  No message about a change = no real change. 

[thesetat]

42 minutes ago, Hawaiian said:

Just a few days ago I phoned Priceline's Customer Support about cancelling a booking because the one of the flights had been removed from the itinerary with no offer of an alternate flight.  I was told in order to receive my refund I would have to pay the tax which had already been included in the price of the ticket.  I decided to play along with this ridiculous requirement.  My bank refused to pay.  I then received a suspicious email saying my booking had been cancelled and I  needed to pay the tax to receive my refund.  The next day I called Priceline again only to discover that there was no record of my previous conversation and that my booking had not been cancelled.  The agent helped me to cancel the booking and got permission from the airline to refund my payment in full with no cancellation fees.  I then forwarded the suspicious email to Priceline.  I received an email from Priceline confirming receipt and also stated that my refund was being processed.

I checked my phone to make sure that I had dialed the correct number for Priceline.  The numbers matched.  The mystery is how was my phoned call hacked by a scam artist.  Any possible explanations?

Perhaps you assume too much.. It may be a case instead of their workers scamming you. I do not put it past anyone to use their position to scam as many people as possible... 

I recently bought a phone on Lazada Market in their app. It was for an original and even claimed to have manufacturer warranty. When I got the phone it was a copy/fake. The company advertising it sent me messages through the app that if I returned it they would take a long time in deciding to refund the money.. Then they told me to accept 100 baht refund haha.. Again warning me the refund would not be given or would take a long time. They knew what they were doing because as soon as I filed for refund based on a fake product, they removed it from their listing. I contacted Lazada and they said not to worry because Lazada would refund the money to me once the company got their phone back. 

[Hawaiian]

24 minutes ago, thesetat said:

Perhaps you assume too much.. It may be a case instead of their workers scamming you. I do not put it past anyone to use their position to scam as many people as possible... 

I recently bought a phone on Lazada Market in their app. It was for an original and even claimed to have manufacturer warranty. When I got the phone it was a copy/fake. The company advertising it sent me messages through the app that if I returned it they would take a long time in deciding to refund the money.. Then they told me to accept 100 baht refund haha.. Again warning me the refund would not be given or would take a long time. They knew what they were doing because as soon as I filed for refund based on a fake product, they removed it from their listing. I contacted Lazada and they said not to worry because Lazada would refund the money to me once the company got their phone back. 

I did mention to Priceline about the possibility of a rogue employee.

[Hawaiian]

42 minutes ago, jas007 said:

Maybe things at Priceline are a little chaotic? They're part of a larger group of travel websites, like Agoda, Booking.com, and so on.  

 

In any event, I think you can set up some of the sites so that you get instant notification in a push message of any change to your itinerary.  So I'd set that up.  No message about a change = no real change. 

Priceline, Kayak and Agoda are owned by Booking.com. Priceline has always notified me of itinerary changes via email with a telephone number to call.  The email warns there is a 5-day window to cancel and apply for a refund.

 

[bkk6060]

Never.