Booking.com scams

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
hydroland2
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:16 pm

Booking.com scams

Post by hydroland2 »

(Not sure if this is the right section, but it's not actually about scam emails)

Is anyone else getting a lot of scam bookings from African countries through booking.com? Just got the third one in a row. Always for 1 person, 9 days, 1 room. Not sure exactly what to do with these as there's no easy way to refuse the booking and booking.com take ages to reply. I don't want to send a payment request in response as booking.com suggest as I don't want these scammers to have any of my details.
I've tried immediately marking the latest one as a non-payment as I know there will never be any payment, but does anyone have any other ideas?
petitbois
Posts: 347
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:54 am

Post by petitbois »

Visa scam - they need an address to get Visa, no intention of staying - only way out is for bdotcom to take payment for you or demand full address, mobile & credit card details to confirm all bookings. Since started taking CC payments 3 yrs ago we no longer receive these bookings, but many of my colleagues receive several a day......
hydroland2
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:16 pm

Post by hydroland2 »

Ugh :(
Maybe it's time to ditch the booking.com listing then? At least when I get an obvious scam booking request through OD they reply very quickly to my ticket and delete the request. B.com just tell me I should send the scammers my bank details for payment!
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Cymraes
Posts: 519
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:31 pm
Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

I haven't had any. I require BdotC to take a credit card, address and telephone number before they can book.

Stops the scammers.
hydroland2
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:16 pm

Post by hydroland2 »

Cymraes wrote:I haven't had any. I require BdotC to take a credit card, address and telephone number before they can book.

Stops the scammers.
I can only take credit cards through PayPal and B.com won't accept that. It's a pity because I've had some great guests through them, but I'm already sick of the scammers and the unbelievable amount of time it takes B.com to reply to a message is not acceptable. Gah.
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CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

As you can only communicate with the potential guests via Booking's own system then surely you just report theses scams to the customer services?
How many have you had?

PS: Booking will take the cc details and payment for you if you wish.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
hydroland2
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:16 pm

Post by hydroland2 »

casasantoestevo wrote:As you can only communicate with the potential guests via Booking's own system then surely you just report theses scams to the customer services?
How many have you had?

PS: Booking will take the cc details and payment for you if you wish.
This is the third in the last few weeks. I had a reply from customer services. They say I should send the guest my bank details and see if they pay me! Obviously because that is the correct way to respond to a scammer!
Unsurprisingly I have had a request from the guest to cancel without payment - exactly the same as the last times. :roll:
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CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

We have found that one should never write, always phone.
Now tell them that 3 is more than enough and that they should be stopping this. You are their customer not the fake guests!
Hope you get to resolve the issue with Booking.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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