Holiday planning: Where and how are you most likely to get scammed?

Off to Barcelona successful nan summer? Make judge to prime a due recreation agent. Taking a travel to London? Watch retired for clone car rentals.

The consequence of being scammed astatine celebrated tourism spots jumps by 28% during highest seasons.

Some examples are clone destination photos, surgery confirmation links and bogus deals.

Travel agencies look to beryllium nan places astir astatine risk, pinch scam rates "four times higher than nan world average," according to a caller study by nan Mastercard Economics Institute.

Fraudsters often found clone tourism companies, attracting customers pinch juicy offers for excursions, guided tours aliases supposedly exclusive experiences, while offering unusually debased prices.

Once nan transaction is processed, these tours either ne'er return spot aliases disagree wholly from expectations.

Risk of scams highest successful Cancun, Hanoi, Dhaka and Bangkok

The study compared astir 20 different cities to found wherever nan consequence is highest.

In general, visitors reported nan lowest travel-related frauds successful San Francisco, Dublin, Seoul, Budapest and Edinburgh, while nan highest rates were reported successful Cancun, Hanoi, Dhaka and Bangkok.

So, really are visitors astir apt to autumn into a trap successful these places?

Travel-agency related frauds are nan astir apt successful Hong Kong (70%), Delhi (64%), Barcelona (64%) and Cancun (48%).

Taxi fraud: Jakarta, Bangkok, Istanbul and London apical nan list

Taxi and car rentals aren't immune either: Tourists whitethorn salary for a work that ne'er materialises aft booking, aliases overpay owed to hidden fees, inflated prices aliases rigged taximeters.

Jakarta (66%) has nan highest taxi fraud complaint crossed each cities analysed, followed by Bangkok (48%), Istanbul (39%) and London (34%).

Food scams besides airs problems, specified arsenic meals that ne'er arrive, aliases being overcharged astatine a edifice done precocious work fees.

That is peculiarly existent successful American cities for illustration LA and New York, wherever nutrient scams correspond respectively 75% and 63% of nan total.

Accommodation: High consequence successful Thailand and Turkey

At nan aforesaid time, successful fraudsters successful nan accommodation assemblage whitethorn usage vacation rental platforms aliases recreation websites to create clone listings and lead visitors to book non-existent properties, aliases ones that greatly disagree from nan descriptions advertised.

Tourists headed to Phuket successful Thailand and Antalya successful Turkey should beryllium peculiarly wary, arsenic accommodation scam rates location correspond 39% and 35% of nan total, respectively.

'Digital wallets are helping amended user protection'

Looking connected nan agleam side, booking flights and trains remains comparatively safe crossed each surveyed cities, pinch scam rates mostly staying below 10%.

However, travellers are astatine consequence of fraud good earlier they time off home. An study of aggregate transaction information shows that successful 2024, fraud linked to early travel readying roseate by complete 12% compared to nan erstwhile year.

"Fake recreation agency websites and excursions that intimately lucifer genuine services tin make it harder for consumers to spot reddish flags", Mastercard's EVP Services Europe Michele Centenaro tells Euronews.

He adds that nan institution intends to destruct manual paper introduction by 2030 to boost security: "Digital wallets, protected by tokenisation and precocious AI-driven fraud prevention tools are improving user protection".