Cybersecurity experts warn of tourist traps

Ticket fraud. Experts see many fake pages mimicking the websites of different airlines and ticket aggregators. Some of them can even display real flight data, sending search queries to legitimate aggregators and giving out the received information. However, visitors to the fake resources will not see real tickets. The goal of attackers is to steal money and use other people's personal data for their own purposes, for example, to sell them on the darknet.

Accommodation scams. Finding accommodation is an important part of planning a trip, so one of the most common methods of fraud is fake online offers of apartments and apartments for rent. Scammers create attractive ads on popular platforms, luring travelers with beautiful photos and low prices. However, after booking and sending payment, it turns out that the authors of the ads are not who they claim to be.

Another type of housing fraud is related to hotel booking. Fraudsters create fake websites that mimic real hotel booking platforms. Often, these sites ask users to log in with credentials from existing accounts. This allows fraudsters to gain unauthorized access to victims' social media accounts or email accounts. As a result, they steal personal data in this way.

Survey scams. Scammers create scam pages or send e-mails in which they offer to take a survey on the topic of travel and receive a reward. Such schemes are based on people's desire to get easy money or a gift. But they are aimed at collecting personal data - name, surname, address, phone number, financial information. The victims of this scheme do not receive remuneration, and the information they share with the fraudsters can be used, for example, for identity theft or money theft. In addition, at the end of the survey it is usually suggested to share information about the survey with friends so that they can also receive a prize, i.e. attackers use victims to further spread fraudulent resources.

Despite the fact that work to identify and block such sites is ongoing, Kaspersky Lab experts recommend the following steps to help protect yourself:

• stick to reputable sites: when booking tickets, use trusted and reputable booking platforms, airline and hotel websites;
• beware of unfamiliar or suspicious sites that offer incredibly low prices or require excessive personal information;
• check the authenticity of the site: before making any transactions or providing personal data, double check the URL of the site for a secure connection, do not enter your data on sites with typos or unusual domain names;
• read reviews from reputable sources and carefully research information about the accommodation, airlines and travel agencies you plan to use;
• Use a robust security solution with online fraud and phishing protection on all devices.