When travellers arrived at a Sunshine Coast property claiming to have booked accommodation, the owners didn’t know what was happening.
The new arrivals said they had made a reservation via Booking.com — but the business had not listed the property on the platform and the rooms were occupied with other guests.
Owners Katie and Rob soon discovered two listings for their luxury accommodation they did not create.
The people who booked had not only been scammed — having provided their banking details to secure the reservation — but they also had nowhere to stay for the night.
“We had a couple crying because they were so devastated,” Katie said.
“We felt very helpless having guests turning up that believed they were our guests, but they weren’t, and having no support to help them.
“We couldn’t do anything to help them other than be kind, try and explain it and get them to change their credit cards.”
It happened to the Sunshine Coast business on four different occasions in July.
Katie and Rob believe the information for the listings was copied from Airbnb, including their logo, description and photos of the property and themselves on the site.
The couple previously listed their accommodation on the platform but cancelled it over a year earlier.
They said the two fake listings were advertised as being at different addresses on their road.
Accommodation scams ‘popular’ and ‘effective’
Australian consumers’ association CHOICE has identified fake listings as one of multiple ways people are being targeted by scammers when booking accommodation online, across both Booking.com and Airbnb.
Queensland University of Technology Professor Cassandra Cross said scams related to accommodation were successful for offenders because booking online was commonplace.
“We are all expected to be on these platforms booking and putting in our credit card and personal information,” she said.
“That is what offenders know that we do and that is why they are popular and really quite effective.”
Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch program received 363 reports of scams mentioning Booking.com, with losses of over $337,000.
This was an almost 600 per cent increase on 2022, during which only 53 reported scams referenced Booking.com.
Dr Cross said while platforms had algorithms designed to try and identify fraudulent posts, the challenge for global companies was the volume of listings.
“There is nothing to stop an offender creating listings or copying listings onto other sites, and that is what makes this a difficult and challenging scam sometimes to identify,” she said.
“The ability for offenders to replicate and create these fraudulent posts far outweighs the ability of platforms to remove them.”
Katie and Rob said because they did not have an active account with the platform, reporting the fake listings was difficult.
They sent emails to the platform’s media department and called their customer service up to six times, but said it was difficult because each time they spoke to a different person.
They believe the false listings for their business were online for about a week before being removed, but have not had confirmation from the platform.
Katie said they check daily to ensure another false listing has not been created.
“Every way we turned we had no power,” Rob said.
“We couldn’t stop people from booking on there and we couldn’t stop people from turning up and knocking on our current guests’ doors so it was a really difficult situation.
“We were racking our brains on how to do the damage control because we didn’t know how many more people were coming.”
They also reported the scam to the ACCC, providing links to the Booking.com listings that were active at the time.
Dr Cross said offenders knew people struggled to contact large platforms and used this to their advantage.
“They can put up a fake profile and know that even if it does get taken down in that time, people will see it, book on it and for them it is definitely worth it,” she said.
A Booking.com spokesperson said they were “sorry” to hear about the matters brought to their attention and that ensuring its platform was “safe, secure and trustworthy” was their top priority.
“Every week, we facilitate millions of stays with the vast majority taking place with absolutely no problems,” they said.
The spokesperson said Booking.com was constantly optimising its robust security measures and took “the process of verifying accommodation listings extremely seriously”.
“If there is ever any cause for concern with a specific property, we investigate and act immediately if needed by removing them from our site,” the spokesperson said.
CHOICE policy adviser Alex Söderlund said global platforms need to take more action to prevent scammers from defrauding customers.
“Digital platforms must do more to protect users from scams, instead of allowing scammers to use their platforms to steal money from consumers,” she said.
“These big tech companies have the means and expertise to protect people from scams, but they won’t do more without the government making them.”
‘That booking is a scam’
It’s an experience that is not limited to Australian shores.
One Australian traveller, who asked not to be named, met the same fate when making a reservation for her honeymoon in the Philippines.
She discovered it was not a genuine listing before she arrived after messaging the host on another platform, questioning why they had not replied on Booking.com.
I do not have an account with booking dot com, the only account I have is here on Airbnb,” the host said in a message.
“You have been the 5th guest that booked through that website, and unfortunately, that booking is a scam.”
The Australian said she was shocked as she had used the platform multiple times and was part of its loyalty program.
“I immediately contacted Booking.com customer service and kind of ripped into them,” she said.
She received a full refund for the booking, but was disappointed the listing — which has since been removed — was not pulled from the site immediately.
In hindsight, she said the only indication to her that the listing was illegitimate was that all 40 of its reviews were external.
“It was surprising when I shared on social media and had a ton of people responding saying they’ve had similar things happen. It shows that Booking.com has been on notice that these things are happening,” she said.
A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson said it was aware of scammers impersonating well-known and trusted brands with the “intent of stealing money or information”.
Dr Cross said data showed scammers were starting to turn their attention to other avenues to reach people as technology was developed to detect suspicious calls.
In 2023, the number of scammers approaching people on via phone calls reported to ACCC’s Scamwatch dropped from 63,816 to 55,418.
They are starting to pick up on social media, which at this point has not had the same attention or buy-in from agencies,” Dr Cross said.
“Offenders are always moving between platforms and the way of communicating that offers the least resistance.”
Kate and Rob want to see the platforms being held accountable for the ramifications of fake listings.
“It is their responsibility to make the platform secure so this is not a possibility,” Rob said.
National Anti-Scam Centre’s tips to stay safe
- Independently verify emails with a link or attachment asking you to sign in or to enter personal information
- Contact the organisation on a phone number that you have located yourself, never one provided in an email or text
- Use the organisation’s app to securely access your account and verify messages and implement two factor authentication
- Be aware customer service representatives won’t ask for account password or credit card information over the phone
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