Earlier this week, RTL published an article on a common hotel booking scam making the rounds as the holiday season gets into full swing. Fraudsters send WhatsApp, email or text messages to victims, posing as a hotel and claiming they need to make a payment to keep the reservation. Often these scams put the victims under time pressure to steal their data or their money.
Hotels across Europe have been affected. RTL received reports of cases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and in Luxembourg.
The Data Protection Committee confirmed it was aware of these cases, and believed the data breach occurred via Booking.com.
But in a number of cases, the bookings were not made via this platform, but direct with the establishments in question. The CNPD (Commission nationale pour la protection des doneés) wrote: "We cannot rule out that individual hotels have been affected separately. Based on the facts available, it is most plausible that the majority of these cases occurred via a breach at an international platform."
In one case, RTL received a user report of a person clicking a link in a WhatsApp message and receiving messages about their Luxtrust token as well as account details. There were demands to validate a high sum of money on their credit card.
The owner of a B&B in Belgium told RTL that one of their customers had paid for the holiday, but been targeted by scammers.
"So far one future guest has paid his stay at our place to the criminals."
The CNPD advised that citizens who believe their data has been stolen should first contact the individual business to obtain the necessary information. If they do not receive a substantial response, they should submit a complaint to the CNPD.
In the case of a Booking.com data breach, they should contact the Dutch data protection authority, as Booking.com's main seat is in the Netherlands.
One user told RTL her father was so anxious about cybercrime that he refused to do anything for fear of it being a scam.
"I think it's awful because my father is a man who always tried to move with the times. But now he is being pushed into a niche where he doesn't belong."
If you want to contact RTL Luxembourg about this or other cases, message dossier@rtl.lu.
