Fake hotel booking websites

Then I will qualify my response. In my experience in the USA, I have never had my reservation canceled without notice or some error on my part like arriving later than check in time. This was also my experience in France and the Netherlands.

Of course I almost always make reservations directly with the hotel.

Cancellations without refund would be considered bad business practices bordering on a scam in most countries.

Did you confirm with the actual hotel and get the name of the person you spoke with and receive a confirmation as I encouraged you to do?

I don't want to get into some kind of contest with you. You asked for input when you said this:

Can those guys cancel my room just before I arrive and how can I avoid this? What else they can do?

Yes, anything is possible. Getting a direct confirmation may make it less likely that they would cancel on you like that. Then again, maybe not.

My experience: I used www.roomsrecord.com (part of this "family" of sites I believe) for my hotel booking.

I returned from my holiday on Saturday and am pleased to report that everything was fine with the booking. All paid for and as described on their site.

I was alarmed about a week before I was due to travel when I read the stories about these sites' alleged criminal activity. I contacted the hotel directly and they said all was ok with the reservation. I was still worried that it may get cancelled last minute but this did not happen. I did cancel the card I used for the payment as I was concerned about those guys having access to my valid card details. Perhaps this was not necessary but better to be safe...

I must admit that there is something untoward looking about their set-up...the sites do not look particularly polished/professional and they state they were founded in 2001 when clearly they were only started this summer. Thankfully mine went smoothly but I would recommend exercising caution or using a more reputable agent to avoid all the anxiety!

<snip> I thought that by letting people know of my experience it might help .I had no problem with MY booking and I have nothing to gain by not being honest about it.


Edited to correct a misunderstanding / misstatement by me. ~Bubbles

I urge people to be very wary of any posters implying these sites are in some way legit. They are not.

The people behind this scam have been posting across a lot of websites in recent weeks defending the sites, by pretending to be customers for whom nothing has gone wrong. One tactic they have been using a lot is saying they are about to travel and are worried, then posting back a few days later saying everything went well.

One thing they have in common is that they are all new posters to the sites in question.

http://www.roomsrecord.com delivered my hotel booking successfully.

Having said that, there does look to be something awry about these sites. In future, for peace of mind, I intend (and would recommend to others) to only use more reputable and established firms - Removed name of specific site. ScamWarners does not recommend businesses. Lets just leave it at "reputable and established firms". ~Bubbles

I just wanted to update you on my booking via availablehotelsbook.com. We are due to arrive at the hotel on 8th October. I have today rang the hotel direct and they have confirmed they have the booking and it has been paid for. However I am not stupid and know that anything could happen between now and my arrival therefore I will let you know the outcome on my return.

This has been and still is quite stressful and I will definately use more caution when makeing bookings in the future. Just a further note you cannont access the website of availablehotelsbook.com.

Snap, I am confident the website has been shut down and that is why it is not available.

ScamWarners has to be careful to not recommend specific businesses. It is beyond our scope to verify any and all reservation booking websites. We do not have the personnel nor the desire to do that kind of research. There are reputable companies and my advice would be to stay with companies that are known and reputable, or contact the hotel directly.

If there are questions about a specific site, we can indicate whether it has signs of being a scam. We don't typically go looking for sties, but we specialize in Advanced Fee Fraud emails that come out of the blue. Some of AFF scams do have websites and we are happy to close those. If unsure please read this thread to see what we do and what we don't do. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15

We can now put this thread to bed. It appears that Interpol, Europol and the Electronic Crime unit in Greece have made arrests. This is a google translated version - the original article can be found here: http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=397494&cid=4

Reckon without the innkeeper ...
First registration: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 18:20

Victims of crooks who have created fake web pages dropped citizens and hotel owners.

The perpetrators had created pages www.newbookingcentrals.com, www.mybookingcentrals.com, www.bookmeanhotels.com, www.yourhotelwbook.com., Through which it was found that advertised services of hotels in our country, unbeknownst to their owners and without having concluded an agreement.

Then charged to credit cards stakeholder reservations made through these sites to specific hotels. In this way managed to fool a large number of citizens who, in their transition to hotels, found that they had been duped.

From Electronic Crime, in cooperation with Interpol and Europol, identified managers fake websites, which-as shown-changed the name of these pages, maintaining the format and graphics, which existed in the feature marked with an airplane logo.

In addition, the online survey showed that these websites are hosted on servers (servers) abroad, while the analysis of debits cards emerged as the joint recipient of the money that is situated in a neighboring country.

H file, which was formed in Athens Prosecutor.

The police, in connection with this incident, urges people to remain vigilant to transactions made through the Internet and specifically to check the validity of the websites through which online shoppers and to choose only known safe websites. Also recommended for the safety of online shopping by using prepaid cards to be available only to the amount to be used.

That is great news!

Unfortunately I'm not sure this is the end of the story.

Some of their sites seem to be popping up again on various IPs hosted through a company called Tehnologii Budushego in Ukraine. For example:

Yourhotelsbook.com
Bookingscheap.com (new)
Bookmeanhotels.com

now resolve to 213.155.10.121


Specialhotelsbook.com (new)
Expertrooms.com
Roomsrecord.com
Availablehotelsbook.com

all resolve to 213.155.5.33

Unfortunately I'm not sure this is the end of the story.

Unfortunately not. We have just received a report of 2 more of these fake sites on another antifraud site that led me here. Like many others, the travel industry is infested with these fake booking sites, although there are a few , easy measures that one can take to ascertain they are dealing with the real thing;

- look for an IATA number to verify, https://www.checkacode.com/GlobalData-w ... ncyCode.do

- look for a complete physical address and contact details; most laws require that these be clearly stated on websites. Beware of any website that fails to include these

- a legitimate travel booking site should display a permit number and or affilliation with a local travel agent association or the likes (ABTA, ATOL, ASTA, ACTA, etc) that may be verified.

Now for the list of sites found to date and I'm sorry if I do repeat some already stated here;

http://www.outlet-hotels.com
US Free : 1-877-778 3484
UK Phone : +44-2035140716

http://www.roomsrecord.com/
+1-877 778 3484

http://specialhotelsbook.com/

http://availablehotelsbook.com/
Company Name IDEAL TOURISM LTD
USA Free1-877-778 3484
E-Mailinfo [@] availablehotelsbook.com

http://www.bookingscheap.com
Company Name : IDEAL TOURISM LTD
USA Free : 1-877-778 3484
E-Mail : info [@] BookingsCheap.com

http://fast-hotelbooking.com/
Nom de l'entreprise : IDEAL TOURISM LTD
USA Free : 1-877-778 3484
UK Free : 0-800-047-0985
UK Phone : +44-2035140716
ES Phone : +34-911881620
E-Mail : info [@] Fast-HotelBooking.com

http://www.yourhotelsbook.com
Company Name : IDEAL TOURISM LTD
USA Free : 1-877-778 3484
E-Mail : info [@] YourHotelsBook.com

http://www.bookmeanhotels.com
0044 203 291 2287

http://www.alternatehotels.com
Company Name : IDEAL TOURISM LTD
USA Free : 1-877-778 3484
UK Free : 0-800-047-0985
UK Phone : +44-2035140716
ES Phone : +34-911881620
E-Mail : info [@] AlternateHotels.com

Hello everybody!

I am also a victim of the following Site: http://www.availablehotelsbook.com

Amount has NOT been deducted yet from my wife's Credit Card.

When we booked a Hotel (last Thursday), when we typed ALL our Credit Card Info, when we pressed the "Book Now" button, we were re-directed to a Turkish Page with "chinese like" (i.e. not understandable) characters. The only thing we could understand was that they wanted us to RE-TYPE our Credit Card Info!!!

Of course, we did NOT!!!

We were NOT stupid enough to Type it twice, especially to a Site we were redirected and had nothing to do with http://www.availablehotelsbook.com.

On the next day, we received an E-mail from http://www.availablehotelsbook.com, asking us to Re-type again all our Credit Card Info, because they could NOT procceed with reservation & they have missed the Credit Card info.

Of course, we did NOT do so!!!

In the mean time, they managed to retrieve our Credit Card Info & pushed through the Charge...

After reading your articles here, we have Sent an E-mail to the Hotel, asking them for Booking confirmation but we have NOT yet received any Hotel answer...

We also asked them to NOT cancel the Reservation, and upon any attempt from any third party, that they kindly send us an E-mail...

In the mean time, we CANCELLED the Credit Card, but the Bank System shows that the agreed AMOUNT + 4 more Euros seems to be Locked for them to profit. It is NOT yet deducted, but it is locked they said...

Just because my wife did NOT feel comfortable after reading all this here, we decided to visit the Site & select/click the CANCEL reservation (because all this frustration doesn't worth it), but there was NO CANCELLATION Button.

Based on their system & the Voucher we have printed, we are still entitled to CANCEL the Reservation with FULL REFUND up to coming December, but it is impossible to do it through their system.

On the Bank, we have filed a DO-NOT pay procedure, but they say they can't stop it...
I truly don't understand why...

Tomorrow we are filing a sue to the Electronic Crime Department on our Country. When we told them all this story, they were not surprised at all, and they even said, that the most common place of such sites doing bad business, is with Banks in Turkey!!!

Why Turkey, I have no clue, but it is very-very strange...

How can we get their site down?

Thanks.

P.S.> Their site even has the PLANE logo, as your article describes. And the article Michael (Moderator) has posted in this Thread is in Greek, and describes a neighboring to Greek country (without naming the Country), who is getting all the money transferred to... Well, I have found the country - the Electronic Crime Department confirmed it for me, & it is called Turkey!