The nine ways our Travel Doctor has learnt to avoid holiday scams

Times

16-05-2025

In my role as the Times Travel Doctor I routinely see the misery that travel scams can cause, with holidays ruined and savings lost. Because of the rise of AI — which has made it so easy for fraudsters to create highly convincing fake websites, emails and chatbots — it's never been harder to avoid them. Whether you're booking a trip or on the road the traps are everywhere, from fake booking sites that look uncannily real to too-good-to-be-true flight deals. And they're not all illegal: some are just sneaky tricks used by rogue companies to part travellers from their cash and personal info. The good news is that many are avoidable. Here are nine things I've learnt about travel scams.
Don't let holiday brain cloud your judgment. If a so-called agent slides into your WhatsApp DMs with an irresistible flight deal, ignore them. Similarly, if you've reached a web page by clicking on a social media advert, check the URL to see if it's legitimate. It's invariably better to start again on the official website and see if you can find the same information. Don't rush to book: scammers love to create a sense of urgency. Check that contact details are readily available and that there's a phone number; unsurprisingly many scam sites don't have one.
• 'I fell for a travel WhatsApp scam — but my bank won't refund me'
Who doesn't love a bargain? But that cheap airport valet parking deal you snapped up doesn't look so rosy when you get off a long flight to find the valet parking company is incommunicado or your precious Audi is returned covered in mud and with suspicious extra miles on the clock. Always check multiple reviews before you book. Similarly, if you see flights at prices well below what anyone else seems to be selling them, you're probably being played. A legitimate way to source a genuinely dirt-cheap airline 'error fare' is to sign up to alerts from Jack's Flight Club (jacksflightclub.com).
Scammers love holidaymakers who pay by bank transfer because it offers no protection if things go wrong. So even if a villa looks dreamy, swerve the owner who insists on this form of payment unless you're absolutely sure they're genuine. It's far better to pay by credit card because this allows you to make a claim against your card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act to get a refund. For section 75 to apply, you must have paid more than £100 but less than £30,000.
Some scams are so destination-specific they're hard to spot. In the summer one of the fun sights in picturesque Porto, northern Portugal's largest city, is the spectacle of young divers jumping off the magnificent Dom Luis 1 Bridge. They'll ask tourists for a euro or two, which seems fair enough, but the real threat is pickpockets who work the crowds clustered on the riverbanks to see the performance. Other cons, rife across big European cities, include the friendship bracelet scam, where someone friendly offers you a free bracelet but demands money once it's on your wrist.
It's invariably better to book directly but too many people fail to navigate to official websites. Do an online search for the Malmaison in York and you'd hope the hotel's website would top the results. But in fact it's the property's page on hotelsone.com, an online agency that fools the unwary into thinking they're booking directly and charges hefty service fees that are nonrefundable. Another agency, guestreservations.com, operates a similar business model. Always double-check the url before you hit send on your payment.
When you're out and about, cybersecurity experts recommend that if you're using anything other than wi-fi you absolutely trust, use a VPN (virtual private network), an app that encrypts and disguises your online activity. But go for a paid-for version rather than a free one (which are known to collect personal data) and always check any restrictions on VPNs in the country you're in. Two worth considering are NordVPN (nordvpn.com) and Surfshark VPN (surfshark.com) with prices starting at about £2 a month. Of course you should change your passwords frequently and enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.
It's the wild west out there. From deliberately breaking locks to demanding you take expensive excess insurance and charging for damage that was already there, too many car rental companies are shameless in their efforts to screw more money out of customers. If you see an attractive headline price, check reviews on multiple sites before you book and, although it's tedious, drill down into the terms and conditions to ensure there's nothing to catch you out (age limits and international driving permits for starters). Before you drive away and when you return, take time-stamped photos of your hire car from all angles.
The launch of Etias, the EU's visa waiver scheme for non-EU travellers, has been delayed several times and won't start until the end of next year at the earliest. That hasn't, of course, stopped scammers taking advantage of the confusion. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said it had found more than 100 unofficial websites providing information on Etias and more will spring up as the launch date approaches, hoping to harvest personal information and charging unnecessary service fees to process applications. The only website you'll need is the official travel-europe.europa.eu and an Etias will cost €7 (it's free for under-18s and over-70s).
• When does the Etias scheme start for UK travellers? Everything you need to know
So you've dodged the unlicensed taxi driver, the pickpockets and the con artist playing three-card monte. Can you relax in a bar with a chilled glass of chablis after a hard day's sightseeing? Of course not. An investigation by Le Parisien newspaper found restaurants and bistros in the French capital are serving inferior wine by the glass while charging for premium labels because tourists can so rarely tell the difference. So always insist on having the wine poured from the bottle in front of you with the label visible or, better still, order a whole bottle. Santé!
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