If you had anything to do with tourism in the past (even simply as a tourist yourself), you should know how important the online reviews are for every online business. Especially when it comes to touristic businesses (such as hotels)
Imagine a hotel owner-manager who is responsible for the online reputation of a hotel, seeing an email like this one in their mailbox.
I received this email a few days ago (at my work email), and I did not bother looking at it twice. I was immediately sure that this was a scam that should be ignored.
But today my cooperator asked me about it, so I thought that maybe it is not evident or clear to everyone.
Anyone could have fallen for this scam. Even experienced users.
Why? Because someone who is busy, usually does not devote an extra minute to check some very important aspects.
Let me explain what I mean.
When I am not sure about an email, I always look at a few details - real quickly.
One of them is the sender.
Let s see who the sender is in this email
What is this?
This is NOT the email address that always appears in the booking.com emails. As a matter of fact, this is a real email that comes from an apparently legit company - therefore my guess is that this companys emails are hacked and used by the scammer for malicious reasons.
Continuing to check this email, we see
If you search for this, you will see that all the emails received are from a no-reply@ address - because those are system emails and are not supposed to receive correspondence. Booking.com partners are supposed to communicate with each other through the platform itself.
Lets see what comes next.
The email recipient is asked to immediately use the button to access the information. It is accompanies by a message (*timely resolution of this matter is crucial..) therefore the user is manipulated into performing an URGENT action and the goal is not to allow to the user much time to think things over and realize that they are about to be scammed.
When you hover the mouse over, you see a totally different address than the booking.com partners dashboard
The link that it takes the user to, is definitely not the booking.com extranet.
I would like to let you know that ALL emails received by booking.com have the below at the beginning:
Please note:
- This email is just an example. A similar email can be received by any other travel provider, so you should always stay alert.
- I have read traveler reviews of fake hotels-properties in booking.com, so always check hotel information
- I have read information of email sent to travelers having booked hotels-asking them to share a new credit card or else their booking will be cancelled.
All of these, and certainly many others, are phishing attempts.
Some of them may be successful, this is the reason they still exist.
We always need to be vigilant - always take a few extra minutes to verify any email or sms received to make sure you are using legitimate links.
Have you received phishing emails?
How did you recognize them?
Let me know in the comments!
Remember to stay safe out there!