A Guide to Safe Summer Travels
Summer is a prime time for travel, but it can also be a season for scammers looking to take advantage of travelers. To travel safely and avoid scams, it's important to make your plans carefully and use reliable resources. Start by booking your travel through well-known, reputable agencies or direct service providers like airlines and hotels. Verify the authenticity of any travel deals by comparing them across multiple platforms. And before you leave, inform your bank of your travel plans to avoid any interruptions in service due to unusual activity.
Red Flags: Spotting Travel and Vacation-Related Scams
Travelers should be vigilant about several common scams, especially those involving unsolicited communications. Unsolicited emails or texts, often promising extravagant deals, are phishing attempts and should be ignored. Always verify such offers through reliable sources and direct communication channels rather than attempting to contact the sender using the contact information they list in their communication to you. The last thing a scammer wants is for you to contact the actual organization they are pretending to represent.
Look out for other scams and fraud tactics like:
- Bogus Vacation Prizes and Offers: Calls and other communications claiming you won a free vacation from drawings or contests you don’t remember entering should be considered scams.
- Travel Document Scams: Be cautious of sites that mimic official government platforms offering assistance with visas or international driving permits for a fee.
- Too-good-to-be-true offers: Deep discounts on hotels, flights or packages are tempting but are often traps set to capture your personal and payment information.
- Vacation Home Scams: Watch out for amazing rental listings on Airbnb or elsewhere at prices that are suspiciously low or with vague details. You should cut off communication completely if the property owner tries to manipulate you to send payment outside of the Airbnb platform.
- Charter Flight Scams: Offers involving private plane travel not listed on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s approved charters are usually scams. Check that the charter flight is approved by the Department of Transportation before paying.
- Room Service and Menu Scams: Be wary of flyers slipped under your hotel door offering room service or nearby restaurant deals. These can be from scammers who will pretend to take your order when all they really want is to steal your credit card information.
- Fake Front Desk Calls: Scammers sometimes pose as hotel staff calling late at night to confirm payment details, targeting you at a time when your guard is lowered and you just want to get back to sleep. Always hang up and call or visit the front desk yourself to verify any requests for payment or personal information.
- Wire Transfer Requests: There’s almost no surer sign of a scam than a request that you pay for a product or service by wire transfer. Scammers often gravitate towards this payment option because it is non-refundable and irreversible.
- Pressure to Act Quickly: Scams typically need speed to succeed and collapse with caution. The more you feel pressured by someone to “act now”, the more likely you should cut off communication with that person.
Ideal Credit Union encourages members to double-check any “too good to be true” offers and use trusted sources for bookings to avoid these scams. Even if you can’t prove it’s a scam with certainty, the risk of fallout from falling prey to a scam is usually much worse than missing out on that potential dream vacation.
What to Do If You Suspect You’ve Been Scammed
If you suspect you've fallen victim to a scam, act quickly to protect your finances. Contact Ideal Credit Union immediately to secure your accounts and discuss any questionable charges with us. Then report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and notify any platforms where the scam occurred, as well as reporting the incident to your local police. Keep all documentation related to the scam as it may be useful in resolving disputes or supporting any investigations.
Travel Smart, Stay Safe
Planning a vacation should be exciting, not stressful. Ideal Credit Union is here to help. Always use secure payment methods and don’t hesitate to contact Ideal Credit Union if something seems wrong or suspicious. Have fun, stay safe and enjoy your vacation knowing that Ideal Credit Union has your back!