People who love to go on holiday often look for attractive travel bargains on the internet. There are thousands of sites that promise to offer the best travel deals such as cheap air tickets, cheap accommodation, and so on. However, you must be aware of the fact that there are numerous scam sites as well that are looking for gullible victims.
Here are some tips on spotting a travel deal scam.
Avoid prepayment without a written agreement
Most travel deals require you to pay in advance and when you do it, you are entitled to receive a written agreement from the vendor about the services that you are paying for. Frauds often try to gain your confidence by calling you up several times and suggesting you to make payment through your credit card and they won’t offer you a written agreement. Well-recognized vendors will always list down what they are offering when you make the payment.
Avoid booking through phone
If a travel dealer calls you and tells you about an exciting travel deal and also tells you that you can only book it on the phone, you should avoid such a deal. Reputed travel dealers have their own website for doing business. If you receive a call for booking a travel deal, you should ask them to provide you several details such as the company’s policy, written agreement for making payment and physical address. If you get answers that seems to be evasive, you should it avoid it.
Avoid ‘limited period offer’ requiring advance payment
There are many genuine travel sites that offer exciting limited period offer. However, if a travel dealer suggests you a deal that seems to be very cheap and asks you to book it immediately, there is a high possibility that you are dealing with a scammer. If the deal is about a trip that is going to take place after 60 days and if the dealer still tells you to make immediate payment to avail limited period offer, you should stay away from it. Actually, 60 days is the time limit offered by many financial institutions to register a credit card dispute.
Avoid deals that appear lower than market value
No travel dealer will want to offer a deal that does not help him pocket a profit. If you happen to come across a farfetched travel deal like $199 spending a vacation week in Hawaii, you should avoid it thinking that it is a scam as it will certainly not help the dealer in making any profit. Even if you feel that you should go for the deal, you should read the offer document carefully to see if you will be charged any add-on fees.
Avoid travel deals that repeatedly use words like ‘complimentary’ and ‘free’
In order to entice you to make payment, scammers try to use such words to attract you towards their fake travel deals. It is very rare for any business to provide something free without some string attached such as mandatory requirement to purchase some other item from them.