Just been scammed! hotelvalues.com

I am sorry that you got 'caught out', sickening feeling isnt it?
At least you became aware immediately and could do something about it and thank you for sharing and making others aware too.

These scammers will stop at nothing and seem to be finding all manner of ways to get their grubby hands on our money.

My OH's debit card was seemingly used in Burgas recently, we knew it had been cloned at some point despite NEVER being taken out of his bedside drawer since he received it. He did get all the money back though.

That's awful, however careful, so easy for these thieves, because that is what they are, to take other people's hard earned cash. Pleased to hear they failed this time.
May favourite, from "virgin media" , let the lady ramble on, wrong version of my name, wrong account , then I tell her she's a disgusting scammer, they hang up.

There are so many hotel booking sites some dodgy most are genuine, it’s often difficult to get a discount rate direct with a hotel most just quote their full price.
Now we just use “Booking.com” which seems to be efficient, we have used “Airbnb” but accommodation is very variable and many require a deposit which is not easy to get refunded.

A quick search and I found this scam goes back to 2022. Comments from people all over the world.

We usually use Booking.com, however as i googled the pub by name to check it out, i fell for it.

Yes, Petra, i saw comments from all over the world, most people saying the same thing, they thought they were booking directly with the hotel/

I do now understand why people feel embarrassed at being scammed, it really makes you feel gullible/careless. Horrible feeling.

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated.

Sorry this has happened to you, hopefully no money will be taken.
We never use third parties for booking hotels. It’s often cheaper to ring the hotel directly as all third parties charge the hotels to have them on their books.
Recently some friends have had an awful experience with Air B&B. The photos of the rental bore no resemblance to the filthy squalor that was reality. Of course they had to pay up front, so had to also pay for a hotel to stay in.

Well done for spotting the scam and taking such quick action OP. I haven't booked a hotel since pre pandemic but I always phoned direct to make a reservation. Old fashioned I know but I think much safer. It also gave me chance to ask in person about their facilities. For example, there's a large, reputable hotel in my city that is still advertising a swimming pool on its website, even though this was closed 4 years ago. People who book online don't discover this until they arrive.

Thanks for the warning - just shows how hyper-vigilant you need to be.
If we’re staying anywhere just for a night or two, we use P Inns, if there is one - and book via their own website. All fine so far, but 🤞.

P Inns is that Premier Inns? There is an alarming discussion about them over on Mumsnet which has put me right off using them again.

Thankfully a huge gang of scammers has been busted.
There business model was selling tech info to other scammers to enable them to setup false websites 😡

petra

Thankfully a huge gang of scammers has been busted.
There business model was selling tech info to other scammers to enable them to setup false websites 😡

Good!

Coincidently, after my original post, the next day Sky News ran a story on 'holiday scams' about cloned hotel and flight web pages.

Today i went to look at flight costs to visit family and the official web page - Loganair - had a warning across the top of the page saying they were aware of fake pages online.

Thankfully it would appear that this time i acted quickly enough and no money went from our account.

Thank you all again for your kind messages, it's a minefield out there and as a frequent traveller, this incident has made me super cautious moving forward.

Thanks for this I've never heard of this scam. Like you it will also make me super cautious in the future.