NEWS: A new report finds that 1 in 5 Americans have experienced a travel scam while planning a trip, and artificial intelligence is constantly making it easier to scam people.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU: If you plan to travel, or even if you don’t, you could end up being ripped off.
McAfee Thursday released its 2025 Safe Summer Travel Report and the overall takeaway is that while Americans think they’re savvy about spotting scams, they’re still getting taken to the cleaners, with 30% falling victim to a travel scam.
Before we get into the particulars, let’s take a look at McAfee’s (and some other) numbers. They may surprise you:
- 65% of Americans say they research common travel scams before booking
- 20% still have fallen victim to a travel scam while booking
- 30% surveyed have either lost money, or know someone who has, to a travel scam while trying to save money on travel
- 29% of men booking a trip have fallen victim to a travel scam
- 18% of women booking a trip have fallen victim to a travel scam
- 21% of 18–24-year-olds have clicked on fake confirmation links and been scammed while booking a trip
- 10% of 25–34-year-olds have been misled by AI-altered travel images, the highest rate of any age group
- 13% of those scammed lost more than $500
- 5% of those scammed lost more than $1,000
- Booking.com reports a 500%-900% increase in travel scams over the past 18 months.
“As Americans plan their summer getaways, cybercriminals are planning too, using increasingly sophisticated tactics to exploit travelers,” Abhishek Karnik, McAfee head of threat research, said. “With a significant number of people surveyed falling victim to travel scams, it’s clear that staying vigilant is more important than ever. Scams are becoming harder to spot, from fake booking confirmations to AI-manipulated photos.”
Karnik said that taking just a few extra seconds to verify a deal or website “can be the difference between a great trip and a costly mistake.”
You can also get scammed while traveling in many ways, both new-tech and old-school.
Before we get to how to make sure you don’t get scammed, let’s go over what the biggest travel scams going into this summer are.
AI voice fake
The most recent, and most virulent, travel scam uses AI voice cloning to mimic the speech patterns, accents and even emotional nuances – according to McAfee – “of real travel professionals.” The call up their marks, claim to represent a real travel agency, and offer an exclusive deal.
The largest group of victims are age 34 and under, and that surprises me. I was not aware that people that age even answer their phone, or listen to voicemail, particularly when it’s not someone they know calling. Apparently, though, they do. But, of course, the unwitting victims are also calling the “travel agency” phone number on the fake, scam website.
It’s all fake
Whether it’s an AI voice travel scam, or one that entices the mark to click, many travel scams now include fake websites that look so real, including:
- Attractive and high-quality images and videos
- Testimonials that look like they’re from real people
- A phone number, chatbot or link that will connect you right to the scammer
- Deals that are too good to pass up.
Fake ticket sites
Many concert-goers, people looking for that elusive ticket to the exclusive museum, and other people seeking that great “experience” without the expense have found that they’ve paid a lot of money for a ticket that the person at the door isn’t going to accept. Because it’s fake. AI has even allowed scammers to mimic established sites that sell tickets to events.
Short-term rentals fake
One scam that has been making the rounds for years are fake listings on sites like Airbnb and VRBO. The scammer shows a property that looks great, for a great price. You pay for it. Then the listing and information disappear, or the property doesn’t exist, or is completely different from what it purported to be.
Scammers also sometimes hack into a legitimate listing and intercept payment before the host gets it.
Sometimes the hosts are scammed by purported renters. The scammer overpays the short-term rental host, then asks for a refund of what they overpaid. The thing is, their payment hasn’t gone through yet and it’s not legit. You’re out the money.
Fake wifi: Scammers both in the U.S. and abroad will set up a free wifi network, and when you connect to check y9our bank account or whatever, they steal your info.
Taxi, tour guide, new friend fake: These ones are as old as the hills, but people still fall for them. You’re in a foreign country, or even a big city you’ve never been to before, and get way overcharged for a cab, told your accommodation is closed so they have to take you somewhere else, told they can get you a deal on a place to stay, a show, etc. Then you learn you’ve been ripped off.
While the AI is new, most scams have a couple things in common that con men going back to the beginning of time have used to lure a victim.
One is a sense of urgency. You have to do it now! If you have to click on something or give sensitive information RIGHT NOW or the deal will expire, find a different deal. If you have to make a decision on a new place to stay, or a change in your itinerary that you didn’t know about, take your time to think about it and find out for yourself.
Always keep in mind that despite technology, the underpinnings of scams are as old as the hills and there’s a reason they’re still around. They work. Remember that whenever you deal with unsolicited, or even solicited, communication of any kind that involves separating you from your money or personal information.
How to avoid a travel scam
Travel industry and other scam-savvy experts offer the following advice on how to avoid a travel scam (it works for avoiding other kinds of scams, too).
Do your homework. If you see an offer on a great travel deal, don’t rely on the agency, or resort, or whatever’s website for the information. That goes for the testimonials and reviews as well. Go to trusted sites like TripAdvisor, the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, Consumer Reports, the Fair Trade Commission – places with a track record, and see what you can find.
The tried and true Googling “Is greatvacationsreallycheap.com (or whatever the name is of the site/company/resort/agency0 a scam?” can uncover some great information. Be sure that if you’re finding positive stuff, again, that it’s from legitimate sites. Don’t trust information you find in a Reddit or Quora thread, look for legitimate info.
This goes for knowing your accommodations and the place you are traveling to, as well. Know the prices, the customs. Make sure you’re familiar with the place you’re staying and how to get there. If you’re offered tips on places to visit, and get an extra offer of a ride to it, check it out first. One “taxi scam” is that the driver tells you the hotel you’re staying at is closed, then brings you somewhere else. Tell the driver (and it can be an Uber, too) to take you to the place you requested. Don’t go with a stranger – whether it’s a driver or a friendly local – somewhere you hadn’t planned just because they want you to. Just as with an attack in an alley or on a jogging path – never let them take you to a secondary location.
It’s a lot easier to know your surroundings in real time with all of us attached to smart phones. You have it, use it and check things out before taking someone’s word for it.
Talk to a live human being face-to-face. Travel agencies still exist and they have real, live human beings who are happy to help you. They can often find you great deals and help you save money on a trip. Call up a local one (make sure it really exists), and if possible, make an appointment to talk to the agent face-to-face in person. AI hasn’t mastered that one yet.
Buy the ticket from the venue. If you’re buying a concert, sporting event, museum, whatever, ticket, go to the venue’s ticketing platform to buy it. Make sure it’s actually that venue’s platform, not one with a name that looks like it but really isn’t. If for some reason you can’t, make sure that the third-party seller site you’re buying from is legit. It’s hard to get your money back if you pay for a fake ticket. Even worse, you don’t get to see the show.
Don’t be pressured. If you are being pushed to make a decision, walk away. If you’re talking to someone on the phone, tell them you need to think about it and will call them back. If it’s online, don’t click until you check it out from a legitimate source. Don’t give out any account information or personal information until you are satisfied that it’s not a scam.
Use a credit card to pay. Don’t pay for a travel deal, accommodation, transportation or anything else with cryptocurrency. No legitimate business will ever ask you use a gift card to pay for something. Even though Venmo and Zelle are legitimate apps, don’t use those either unless you’re very certain of the source. Don’t use a debit card. Only use a credit card to pay for travel, accommodations, transportation and tickets to events. Your credit card company has fraud protection, and if you got ripped off, it’s much easier to keep your money.
Stick to the rules. Scams on Airbnb and VRBO are often successful because they lure the victim to go off the platform to pay or communicate, sometimes with a promise of a deal. They may tell you they don’t want the corporate folks at the platform to get a cut of the money, or know what’s going on. Don’t fall for it.
Read the fine print. Have you watched the Netflix documentary “Trainwreck: The Poop Cruise” yet? I bet you were as surprised as I (and the thousands of people who had to sit in their own excrement on a stalled Carnival cruise ship for days back in 2013), to find out that their ticket terms and conditions said that Carnival made “absolutely no guarantee for safe passage, a seaworthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food, and sanitary and safe living conditions.” Yikes!
Know what the cancelation and refund policy is, what any guarantees actually mean, what’ll happen if you don’t get what you paid for, and more. Travel industry experts report that people frequently are unaware of refund and cancelation policies, or what happens if they are late, or the accommodation isn’t up to their standards. It isn’t necessarily fraud when you think you’re getting something you paid for, then don’t get it. Know what you’re paying for down to the last letter.
Use a VPN when you connect to wifi and don’t access sensitive info: A VPN is a virtual private network that you can use on your laptop that gives you a proxy ISPN (Internet service provider number) and encrypts your internet traffic. Of course, before you download a VPN, research it to make sure it’s safe and not a scam.
Keep you to yourself. Scammers prey on the information that we all allow to pour out of ourselves digitally and personally. You’d be amazed what someone can learn from you online in just minutes, then use against you. The person is your soul mate! They go to the same church or have the same favorite book. No way they’d rip you off. Or what a great coincidence that you got that email about a resort in Trinidad just when you’d been chatting online about wanting to go to Trinidad! It’s just as easy to get lured into a conversation where you’re giving away more personal information than you think. Someone asks you where you’re from, why you’re in town. They’re so friendly! They go to the same church! They have the same favorite book! You know that because when you said your thing, they said, “Hey, me too!” All of the sudden, they’re recommending a better place to stay or offering to drive you to this great restaurant. In a lot of cases, what they’re really going to do is somehow separate you from your money.
Look for the obvious tells: AI is definitely getting better as far as grammar and punctuation mistakes that give away a scam, but there are still tells. For instance, the EZPass scam that’s been going around – car owners get a text that their account is overdue, and there’s a link they can click on to pay – comes from a phone number that is not New Hampshire. The last one I got had a Columbus, Ohio, area code. I’ve even gotten one with a Montreal area code. I’ve also gotten them with a Philippines country code (the U.S. is +1). Even if New Hampshire did text people and ask them to click a link to pay their EZPass – which they don’t – no one in Ohio, Montreal, or the Philippines is going to be doing New Hampshire’s business for it.
Check the origin of any text or phone call. Even with proxy numbers, they make mistakes.
If an email from a business purporting to be an invoice is from a gmail address, even though it says it’s Home Depot, PayPal, McAfee or some other giant corporation, then it’s fake. If it also is copied to 50 other gmail addresses? Super fake.
This is also true of travel sites, booking companies, and any other place you may do business with. Find the real contact information – not the fake website, but the real one – and call or email them. Not to be all OK Boomer, but back when people used phone books, you could be assured the number you looked up in the Yellow Pages wasn’t going to be some AI-generated fake. Just saying.
Scam resources
As always, I’ll leave you with some tools that’ll help your scam avoidance.
AARP has a fraud alert page with advice and resources, including more details on how to avoid scams and lists of the latest common scams. They even have a scam podcast!
The FTC has many scam-related resources, including:
- Articles, consumer alerts, and advice to help you spot and avoid scams at consumer.ftc.gov.
- Resources in multiple languages at ftc.gov/languages.
- Free print materials (including delivery) to share with your organization or community at ftc.gov/BulkOrder.
You can also report fraud or scams to the FTC in any language. They want to hear from you even if you didn’t lose money. Report in English at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, in Spanish at ReporteFraude.ftc.gov, or in another language by calling 877-382-4357 and pressng 3 to speak to an interpreter.
If you want to read an in-depth look at how someone who’s just like you can get scammed, check out my Anatomy of a Scam column.