Since September, at least 30 people have been victims of a hotel reservation scam, with losses amounting to around $735,000 Mexican pesos. Police reported Sunday that the victims had made hotel reservations through the online booking portal Booking.com and would receive emails or messages from the in-app chat feature. Booking.com from scammers posing as hotel representatives.
The scammers asked victims to confirm and verify the reservation using a fraudulent link.
After clicking the link, victims were asked to provide their personal and banking details, such as one-time passwords and credit card numbers.
In some cases, fraudulent websites instructed victims to make payments to confirm the reservation.
Victims realized they had been scammed only when they tried to contact Booking.com or to hotels, or discovered unauthorized transactions on their bank accounts or credit cards.
Police have advised the public to take precautionary measures, such as adding the app ScamShield and enable security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication for banks. Individuals should also set transaction limits for Internet banking transactions, including PayNow.
People are urged to always verify the authenticity of information with hotels using their official contact details and not to click on links provided in unsolicited messages. The public is also advised to watch out for signs of phishing websites and never reveal personal or banking credentials to anyone.
Via: The Straits Times
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