The holiday season is in full swing and travelers from all over the world are looking for interesting places to go, cheap places to stay while on vacation and cheap flights. Cybercriminals are on the move and have prepared many fake websites. What is fraud and how to protect yourself?

Kaspersky researchers have noticed an increase in the number of malicious activities with numerous phishing pages distributed under the name of airlines and related to booking services.

What are the most common fraud schemes used to lure victims

Aggregators of fake tickets

Most travel starts with booking a plane or train ticket, and travelers are often on the lookout for great deals. Kaspersky experts have discovered numerous fake websites that allegedly offer users the opportunity to buy plane tickets at a lower price. Such websites are usually well-designed phishing pages imitating the services of well-known airlines and flight aggregators. Some of these websites even display actual flight information, as sophisticated phishers send search queries to flight aggregators and display the information obtained from them.

However, instead of delivering the promised plane tickets, they keep the transferred money and use the victims’ personal information for malicious purposes (such as selling bank details and identity information on the dark web).

Fake lottery for discount tickets

There are also many fake pages that try to lure travelers with air ticket giveaways, lotteries and gift cards. Users are given the opportunity to complete a short survey and enter their personal details in exchange for a generous discount on their flight ticket. Like many offers that seem too good to be true, these sites turn out to be phishing sites that collect victims’ personal information and card details.

Also, the survey usually ends with a request to share the site with your friends for a prize. In such cases, cybercriminals use victims as a tool to further spread the fraud. A link sent by people you know seems more trustworthy than a link from strangers. If the user then follows the link and tries to claim their prize, they often find they have to pay a fee or commission first. After paying this money, the cybercriminals disappear without offering a “prize” to the user in question.

Fake lease

Another popular tactic used to scam travelers is fake rental services. As an example, we can cite the offer of a luxurious two-room apartment near the center of the European capital for only 500 euros per month. Another seemingly attractive offer is to rent an entire house, with four bedrooms, with a pool and a fireplace, for only 1,000 euros for the whole month. Reviews describe a wonderful vacation and hospitable hosts. This entices users to pay for a month’s stay, but in reality they are sending money to cybercriminals.

Recommendations not to cheat

• Look carefully at the address bar before entering any important personal information, such as your login and password. If there is something wrong with the URL (spelling, if it does not look like the original, or if it uses special characters instead of letters), do not enter anything on the site. If in doubt, check the site by clicking the lock icon to the left of the URL.

• Book accommodation and tickets only through verified websites of verified suppliers. Ideally, enter the website address manually in the address bar.

• Do not click on links that come from unknown sources (via emails, messaging apps, or social media).

• Visit the company’s official website if you received a gift offer via email or social media from a travel company or airline to confirm the gift. You should also carefully check the links that the free ad takes you to.

• Use an effective security solution that will protect you from spam and phishing attacks.

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