As people continue to travel and book online vacations, and vacation frauds are becoming increasingly more prevalent with scammers managing to find new, innovative ways of tricking people into taking their money. While they can sometimes be quite advanced with their strategies, the following six guidelines will keep you as safe as possible.
- Stick To Quality Websites
Before the concept of online booking was as widespread as it is today, attempting to choose a secure website was essentially a dice roll. You’d be putting all of your money on the line. Today, however, this is not a problem since there are a lot of established websites such as Booking.com, which carry virtually no risk with them.
If you want to minimize your chances of falling victim to a scam, it’s in your best interest to stick only to the websites that have a good reputation. They usually have measurements in place that will return money to you in the worst-case scenario, as well as a 24/7 available customer support team.
- Don’t Pay The Whole Sum Right Away
No matter how trustworthy a platform/person is, there’s no reason to ask for the full payment upfront. In case something goes wrong, you’ll lose out on a huge amount of money. However, a small prepayment is usually a must since it serves as a guarantee of your visit – otherwise, you could cancel the arrangement the day before you’re scheduled which would cause additional expenses to the landlord/hotel.
Even certain websites (such as the aforementioned Booking.com) give their clients the ability to add a prepayment option. Keep in mind that if you’re somehow prevented from following through with the arrangement, prepayments are usually non-refundable.
- Always Read Reviews
The best indicator of the quality of accommodation are past customer reviews. If they’re overwhelmingly negative, chances are high that you won’t have a good experience either. Make sure to read the review in detail – what was the biggest problem for that person, how did the arrangement fail to meet their expectations, and if they have any better recommendations.
The frequency of different reviews is largely important as well. If there’s a small number of positive reviews, it could be the company themselves trying to boost their rating. Unfortunately, you can never be 100% sure that you’ve made a good choice, you can only take the necessary precautions.
- Check The Address
A common strategy among the scammers is one that can be easily detected if you take one extra step. Instead of putting an address that at least has some type of building connected to it, scammers input a random one. Of course, if you went to examine it in person, you’d have to spend a lot of time and money on fuel.
Instead, you can do a completely free check by using Google Maps. Simply type in the address, go to the “Street View” option and scan the area to see if it looks like the one from the images. Look for any discrepancies until you’re completely certain that the address is a legit one.
- Verify The Owner’s Identity
The actual person that’s behind the computer screen can be anyone, and you could think that you have no way to know for sure until you meet them in person. In certain countries, this can be extremely dangerous. Ideally, you want to be sure that the owner is who they’re claiming to be, and Spokeo could help you verify that.
If you’re getting ready to make an arrangement, chances are high that you already have that person’s mobile phone, which is already enough for Spokeo to run a check. The reverse phone lookup process takes at most a couple of minutes, during which it doesn’t require any interaction from you since it’s fully automated.
Once you receive the report, two of the most crucial areas that you should look into are past criminal records and social media profiles. The former will let you know if you’re dealing with a dangerous person, while the latter will help you confirm their identity and their intentions.
- Google The Accommodation Picture
Even after you’ve run an address check, you still aren’t completely in the clear. The image might be matching, but it could’ve been simply downloaded off the Web. For this last analysis, you can take advantage of Google’s reverse image search utility.
All you have to do is visit Google Images, select the “Search by Image” option, and upload it. Then, the algorithms will attempt to find a match among Google’s extensive database of images. If you receive something as result, you can be almost completely sure that you’re dealing with a scam.
Author Bio: Maguire Haigh is a marketing manager for Spokeo. He is interested in the latest technology trends, marketing strategies and business development. He also prefers traveling, exploring the world and meeting new people. Maguire has great experience in creating and editing articles on different topics.
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