High expectations come with those one or two weeks away that we all look forward to the whole year. 
But imagine if you not only lost all the money you’ve been putting away for that dream holiday, but you turned up in sunny Spain to find that not only does your holiday not exist, but that you had nowhere to stay and three young children screaming in the back seat of your rather hot hire car at the end of a long day?
Unfortunately, this has been the case for a few unlucky holiday makers caught out fraudsters.
Scams targeting tourists are not new – from bogus local ‘policemen’ to passport theft, fraudsters have long been aware of what easy targets holidaymakers make. However, with many of us now turning to the variety and convenience of the web to find our perfect holiday, the fraudsters are of course following. The anonymity of the web makes it much easier for criminals to pull the wool over our eyes and to target significant numbers of people at any one time – they only need one to respond to make it worth their while.
Of course, most of us are lucky enough to book our holidays online with no problems at all. However, it’s easy to get caught out, and for those that do, the effects can be devastating. Not only can you lose fairly substantial sums of money, the upset of having to turn around and go back home can put a real dampener on your summer.
Worryingly, the research we released today reveals that over two-thirds of UK web users have never heard of the most common scams, and that around 1 in 3 are putting themselves at increased risk by not following basic anti-fraud measures, such as checking whether the operator is a member of a recognised travel authority, doing background checks and looking out for signs of a secure website.
If you’re about to book that last minute getaway, check out our new Travel Essentials Checklist on the Getsafeonline.org website first. We’ve put this together with ABTA to help make holidays the relaxing experience they should be!
