This Morning: Simon Calder warning about holiday scams
Simon Calder joined the team on ITV’s This Morning to share his advice on holiday scams. The expert shared his advice as the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warned that scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to trick British holidaymakers.
Simon said: “When you are booking any kind of travel product, you have to be absolutely convinced that you are dealing with the company itself.
“Now obviously, if you’re dealing with easyJet or Ryanair, or British Airways or whoever, you can just be going and checking their website and that they have got the correct URL.”
British tourists should make sure they’re on the correct company website before booking. Fake websites often have spelling mistakes or incorrect logos.
Simon added: “But if anybody’s offering you something that sounds too good to be true. Flights to New York, I’ve seen them for £44 return in the summer.
“That’s never going to happen but that’s what you can find online. That is not going to work in your favour.
“If you can suddenly find this wonderful property that’s just the weeks when you want it and it’s half the price of anywhere else, you can be pretty convinced that that’s a scam. So, do due diligence and make loads and loads of checks.”
A holiday deal that seems ‘too good to be true’ may well be a scam invented to trick British tourists.
Tourists can try searching for the image on Google Reverse to see if a property photo has been stolen from a legitimate website.
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Simon said that the best way to pay for a holiday is using a credit card as it offers tourists more protection.
He said: “If you pay with a credit card, then assuming it’s £100 or more, you are covered, whatever happens.
“The thing is, the fraudsters will not get merchant status with the credit card so that’s a pretty good check and it will give you automatic consumer protection. That’s the ideal way to pay.”
The travel expert warned that if the company asks you to pay in cash rather than by card, it is “very simply a scam”.
British tourists could also get caught out by fake visa websites or websites that charge tourists a fee for the service.
Simon said: “For the Global Health Insurance Card which is completely free, you will suddenly find you have to pay £35 if you go through a service company.
“Now this isn’t technically a scam, it’s actually perfectly legal to make a charge from this. But you’re just throwing your money away.”
British tourists don’t have to pay for a GHIC and should make sure they’re not using a third party website that charges a fee.
Scammers could also target Britons who need to renew their passport. Britons should renew their passport through the Government website.
The EU is due to implement a new border security system called ETIAS which British tourists will need to pay for.
Scam websites have targeted tourists with fake ETIAS schemes. The launch of the scheme has been delayed until 2024 and Britons do not need it for holidays this year.
Once the scheme launches, there will be an official website and Britons should not try to purchase one through third party sites.
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