What's Your Tourist Footprint?
Carrying a camera around your neck?
Have flyers and maps sticking out
of your bags or pockets?
Looking lost?
It's ok to be lost, but try not to look lost. Stow that camera, tuck away those guide brochures and maps and walk with confidence. Scammers prey on vulnerability. The less you look like a tourist, the less vulnerable you are to the everyday travel scams.
SPRING BREAK SCAMS
You think you got the deal of the century for your spring break vacation; a quiet house, beach-front view, and a pool, all at low cost. You had to pay upfront of course, but it's worth it right? However, once you arrive and the place looks nothing like the pictures, in fact nothing matches the description on the website. Even if you find the owner, you may be out of luck, out the up-front money you sent, with no place to stay.
Trust your intuition, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is and you should find another option. A little caution of the front end can prevent disaster and disappointment.
BEWARE:
- Don't click on pop-up ads! Pop up ads are very often designed to target consumers into booking or buying on an untrustworthy website
- Some sites claim free vacations "but" with a small processing fee
Watch these two videos:
Hotel Travel Scams
You arrive at your lodging and your host says the place you rented is no longer available and offers you another property. Most often things are fine, but what happens when they aren't?
Booking
- If the host offers you a partial refund for the lesser quality room, get them to arrange this through the app BEFORE you accept it.
- If you find the situation completely unacceptable, contact Airbnb/VRBO/the booking company immediately.
- Pay on the platform you booked through and nowhere else. Sometimes, hosts are simply trying to bypass Airbnb or VRBO to avoid the hefty fees, but in other cases, it is outright foul-play. No matter the reason, only pay through the app.
Safety planning doesn't stop once you get to your hotel:
- Put photos of your belongings, vaccination cards, passports, contents of your wallet, credit card etc. in a folder on your phone for easy access should you need to file a claim.
- Secure what you are not taking with you and keep these items out of site.
- Scammers target hotel guests by:
- calling your room, claiming to be the front desk and needing more money,
- setting up fake WIFI logins - make sure you log on to the hotel's WIFI,
- setting up fake food delivery service. They get your money and you don't get the pizza.
Watch this video from an interview with BBB on Spring break scams.
Read about spring break scams on the Better Business Bureau website.
