Your weekly dose of scam-proofing in 3 minutes or less—no fluff, just the latest hacks, scams, phishing attacks, and cyber cons you actually need to know about.

🚨SCAM OF THE WEEK: Travel & Vacation Scams

Because nothing ruins a holiday faster than realising it never existed.

What is a Travel or Vacation Scam?

It’s when scammers offer fake flights, holiday packages, hotel deals, or rentals that don’t exist.

You pay for paradise. You get nothing - or worse, you show up and someone else lives there.

How it works

1. You see a dream deal: luxury villa, dirt-cheap flight, last-minute cancellation special. It’s on social media, a travel site, or a message from a “friend.”

2. You’re asked to pay upfront - often by bank transfer or card - for flights, bookings, or deposits.

3. Then the excuses start. Or worse, you arrive and realise you’ve been conned.

Good luck getting your money back from a fake agent named “Darren” with a Hotmail address.

Why it works

• People get excited and rush to book

• Scammers create fake listings with stolen photos and fake reviews

• Desperate travellers fall for “one-time-only” deals

• It often targets people unfamiliar with online booking or who don’t speak the local language

• The fraud only gets noticed when it’s too late

Real-world examples

✈️ Action Fraud reported over £15 million lost to travel-related scams in the UK in 2023 alone - most involving holiday lets and fake flights.

✈️ One family paid £1,200 for a beachfront Airbnb in Spain - only to arrive and find an elderly couple living there with zero knowledge of the listing.

✈️ Fake Ryanair ticket giveaways on Facebook tricked thousands into entering personal details for “free flights,” which were then sold on the dark web.

Red flags to look out for

• Listings without reviews or with only 5-star copy-paste reviews

• Prices that are far cheaper than anywhere else

• Requests for payment via wire transfer, bank deposit, or apps like PayPal

• No way to contact the host, or only WhatsApp/email communication

• Booking directly through social media or unverified links

How not to get played

• Use trusted booking platforms with buyer protection

• Verify listings - check reverse image search to see if the photos are stolen

• Never pay via bank transfer or unprotected methods

• Double-check cancellation policies and refund terms

• If it feels too good to be true, it’s probably a staycation scam in disguise

🔥 ONE-LINER HOT TAKE

If your luxury villa has no address, no reviews, and no host - congrats, you just booked a scam.

That’s it for this week.

Dream holidays don’t start with dodgy deposits and fake confirmations.

Book smart. Travel smarter. And don’t send your cash to “Karen the travel agent” on Facebook Marketplace.

Catch you next time,

Dan & the Goldphish Team

📌 P.S. Know someone booking holidays through random Instagram DMs? Forward this before their “beachfront suite” turns out to be someone else’s shed, or tell them to subscribe below.👇