We are at a time of year where many have been preparing for their increasingly approaching summer vacations for some time. One of the best-known online platforms for booking vacation destinations is Booking, something that cybercriminals know very well.
The scams that we find on the Internet are becoming more and more frequent and of which we can fall victim at any time. In addition, we find campaigns especially aimed at a series of times and moments of the year, as is the case that we are telling you about now. And taking into consideration that the aforementioned online service is used especially throughout these months, attackers want to take advantage of this circumstance.
I’m sure many of you already know first-hand that the platform we are talking about here, Booking, is one of the great references when it comes to making all types of accommodation reservations. In the summer season, as could not be otherwise, its use multiplies. And those malicious actors who want to get hold of our private data, even steal our money, get started using the online service.
In fact, at this moment many users are reporting on different social networks a scam campaign that is appearing at the moment. What’s more, as some of those affected make known, it is a malicious campaign used by the aforementioned Booking and that is quite convincing. Hence precisely its great potential danger. This is the reason why below we will show you how it works so that you do not fall into the trap if you are regular users of this service.
How the Booking scam works
Taking into consideration the dates we are in at the moment, in the middle of summer, possibly a good number of users have made their reservations through Booking. This means that they are currently waiting to enjoy their reserved stay, sometimes months in advance, when the time comes.
However, the scam that we are mentioning now focuses on an email that we received and that could ruin all our hopes this summer. Of course, attackers make use of all this to deceive us in a more effective way. The reason for this is that we receive an email designed in such a way that it seems to come from the platform, requesting some additional data.
If we refuse to provide this information, the email itself informs us that we could lose our reservation. Evidently, images and sources that pose as the original online service are used to deceive us. Basically, what they ask us for is a series of personal information to confirm the reservation and not lose it.
All this is done through a malicious website that imitates the official Booking website where we must enter these data, including bank details, as confirmation. From there, as you can imagine, malicious actors receive the information entered to do whatever they want with it, so we become victims of the scam.
