Travel Tips: Avoiding Travel Fraud, Overcharges and Identity Theft

Whether you travel abroad or at home, alone or with family it can be a fun filled time, but just because you are away from home, it does not mean you can drop your guard. Unfortunately there are people out there who prey on tourists and travelers. Here are some of the most common travel scams and how you can avoid them.

The Hotel Front Desk Credit Card Scam

The hotel front desk calls your room late at night and they say your credit card information did not go through after you checked in, and that they need your information again. The problem is that it is not the front desk calling, it is a scam artist who has called the hotel and has asked for your room number. Before you know it, a stranger has your credit card information.

The easy way to avoid this common scam is to not give your credit card information out over the phone. Take the time to walk down to the hotel front desk in your pajamas if necessary so that you can confirm that it was an employee who called your room.

At Your Service

Fraudulent room service charges are becoming more common. You order your food and 20 minutes later your meal arrives at your door. Before handing over the food, your waiter or waitress demands that you pay them the full amount for your food in cash. Unfortunately, many travelers are falling for this scam.

If you order room service, your meal will be billed to the card that the hotel has on file for you. Never pay cash for room service. If this happens to you, call the front desk and tell the hotel manager immediately.

The Distract and lift

While you are at an ATM someone approaches you and asks you a question, you turn to them and pay attention to what they are saying, in the mean time, their accomplice just ran off with the cash that the ATM dispensed.

If you are at an ATM (even in your home town) never take your eyes off of the ATM, even if someone asks you a question. Just tell them to wait until you are done, but never take you eyes off of the machine. The same applies if you are walking down a street. If someone asks you a question, keep on walking. Pickpockets like to the use the distract and lift method too.

Public Transportation

Taxi drivers know when they are dealing with tourists and they will often take the longest route possible, or they will start the meter off at a higher rate because they think they can get away with it. The best way to avoid this is to agree a fee upfront before you even set foot inside the taxi.

Also make sure that the there are handles on the inside of the doors. Yes it sounds crazy but, there have been reports of travelers not being able leave the taxi with out paying a ridiculous fee first. When you get to your destination, if the driver starts to create a scene over the fee, shouting police a few times will make the driver leave the scene in a hurry.

The dropped wallet

If you see a wallet or other valuable item on the floor, do not pick it up, this is the classic dropped wallet scam. If you touch it, someone will be running at you screaming thief. They will make you pay a large sum of money or they will threaten to call the police on you. Go to the nearest store and tell an employee what you have found. Let them be the ones to pick up the wallet or call the police, it is best to just leave it well alone.

The Timeshare

The famous timeshare is still doing the rounds. Running into a timeshare salesman while traveling is as guaranteed as you having to complete your yearly taxes. If you are approached by a timeshare sales man do not fall for his sales pitch, and definitely do not fall for the offer of an amazing free gift.

Sure, you will get a free gift after 3 hours of high pressure sales pitches, but you will end up paying more in shipping than the free gift is actually worth. The best thing to do is ignore the salesman. Just keep on walking, do not talk to them, they will soon lose interest and you will not lose the money you have in your wallet.

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Avoiding Text Message Frauds

The invention of text messaging - and particularly, the widespread adoption of cellular data plans that allow for unlimited texting - has been a real boon for the honest and law-abiding citizen. Text messages, also known as Short Message Service (SMS), provide a tremendous convenience for today's busy people. They let us alert loved ones that we'll be a few minutes late, gossip with friends in quiet places, and send key information to coworkers or friends. Unfortunately, this same convenience and ease of use makes text messaging an area that is ripe for exploitation by the unscrupulous and criminal element.

If you text, you've probably received "spam" marketing text messages uninvited in your inbox; if you weren't on an unlimited plan, you may have expressed a few choice words at having to pay an extra charge for the privilege of seeing an unwanted advertisement. But text spam is an irritant at worst; the real threat comes from "smishers," identity thieves using the SMS system to try to trick or extort personal identity from unwary consumers.

These scammers will usually send a faked message that pretends to be an official communication from your financial institution. The fake text will ask you to contact someone in the office at a provided phone number or to click on a link embedded in the text message to visit a web site from your cell phone's browser. The phone number leads to a boiler-room crime ring, and the web site is a fake, designed to look like the real site, but it is, in fact, completely in the control of the identity thieves. Once they have you on the phone or on the web site, a smooth talking operator will attempt to get your identity information, such as your account number(s), your social security number, your home address, etc.

Sometimes spotting smishing attempts can be very simple, as when there are obvious misspellings in the message, the name of the financial institution is slightly wrong, or the request for information is blatantly obvious. Unfortunately, many smishers have grown much more sophisticated; their dummy sites look and work just like the official site, and the people working the phones or the online chat system at the website are very knowledgeable and skilled at emulating real financial industry professionals.

There are four key defensive techniques.

One, be suspicious to the point of paranoia about your passwords and account information. No reputable financial institution will ask you to provide, to verify, or to confirm such information over an unsecured phone or Internet chat line, and they will NEVER call you or text you to ask you to provide or confirm such information in order to avoid an account closure or other dire consequence.

Two, you can further protect this information by ensuring that you always have strong passwords for your accounts at financial sites, using a different password for each account so that one lucky guess doesn't open up your entire portfolio to these hackers.

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