Travel scams: The warning signs to look out for when booking holidays

National World - LocalTV

When it comes to booking holidays, only a third of us check the terms and conditions and 17% would book with an unknown provider if it was cheaper - leaving us more vulnerable to scams.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Rob Staines, and I am an independent travel expert. First of all, we should be

00:05booking with reputable companies that we know and trust. And that's why it's really important

00:10that we're also checking online reviews. Don't just check for bad reviews. If there's no

00:15reviews at all, or a company that you've never heard of sounds like the most wonderful company

00:20in the world, I probably see that as a little bit of a red flag. Also be looking out for

00:26really, really cheap holidays that almost seem too good to be true. They usually are.

00:32Do a bit of research, maybe go onto other websites. If it's a flight, for example, go

00:36on the airline's website. If those prices are vastly different, then really shouldn't

00:42be going for the cheapest option. And, you know, also trust your gut throughout everything.

00:49Like I said, if it seems too good to be true, it definitely is going to be. And low price

00:53holidays with very high deposits in comparison to the overall price of the holiday, again,

00:59is not something that we should be going for. Also, it's really important. No reputable

01:05company will ever ask you to pay via bank transfer. So that's just like handing over

01:11a wad of cash. Always pay with a credit or debit card. You are protected under Section

01:1675 of the Consumer Credit Act. I would always say to people, double check the URL of that

01:22website. If you get an email, for example, make sure that you are looking at the actual

01:27email address, see if it matches up with the company name. It's really, really important.

01:33And then, you know, also, but I think a lot of us have got very used to checking for those

01:38sort of like trademark badges that we know offer us protection. So I'm talking about

01:42things like the AptoBadge or the Atoll badge. Now, obviously, scammers can also imprint

01:48these onto their websites. But you can go on the CAA website and check for whether a

01:55company is actually Atoll protected or Apto protected.

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