Travellers have lost $100,000 in scams this year, ACCC says
The consumer watchdog is warning people to be alert to bogus travel deals after receiving 1,650 complaints about travel scams this year, with a total of $100,000 reportedly lost.
ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said many complainants were contacted by phone and offered holiday vouchers for $2,000 or $3,000.
She said others were sold fake trips to Florida or the Bahamas, including tickets to theme parks or cruises at discount rates.
"This year we've had complaints about vouchers which promised a Caribbean cruise and trips to Disneyworld around Florida. People have paid a lot of money - they haven't received anything," Ms Rickard told the ABC.
"We've had a few people who've paid over $10,000 each for these sorts of voucher schemes. The most common ones we see though are for Bali, Thailand, Fiji - the local destinations Australians are fond of visiting.
"Check who you're dealing with. If you've been offered vouchers for particular accommodations or cruises, contact the accommodation providers, the cruise providers, sourcing the contact details yourself.
"Pay using a trusted payment mechanism like a credit card. Don't pay via a wire transfer," she said.
West Australian resident Martin lost $32,000 when he booked first-class flights to London from Perth this year.
He thought he had booked through a reputable travel agent because he had used the agent previously.
"I had to join up as a United Airlines frequent flyer and then he subsequently transferred 360,000 frequent flyer points into our account. In saying that I didn't know there was anything illegal," he told the ABC.
"We then transferred money into his account which was $12,500 and that was to travel on June 30 this year.
"We went to the airport at 8am and were told that our tickets had been cancelled because of improper use of frequent flyer points and that it was fraudulent.
"As a result of that we ended up buying our same seats that we'd previously paid for through this scheme; business class and first class costing us $22,000 at the airport because we had other things planned for when we got to London.
"To make it worse, just before we were due to travel I'd already booked for travel in 2015.
"It was a single person. He was actually using the email address of a business called Wholesale Flights in the US but he was depositing money into his own account through a PayPal account.
"I contacted Wholesale Flights and told them we had emails from this guy saying he represents their business, and they were most receptive.
"They confirmed this guy in particular had been let go for suspicious activity. He was poaching their clients from web-based fliers so then he started his own business called skyhighflights.com and started advertising on that.
"I contacted him from London and told him what had happened. Shock and horror from his point of view, and I asked him for a refund back and assurances for the flights that we'd booked for 2015.
"After three or four months of promises, in the end his mobile phone is going to voicemail, his email started bouncing back from his business, his domain address is up for sale."
Martin lodged complaints with US and Australian authorities, so far without success.
Telstra scam warning
In addition, Telstra this week renewed its concerns about scammers posing as the company's employees to extort money from consumers.
The company produced an information flier called Is It Really Telstra Calling? that will be sent to 6 million customers between now and Christmas.
It provides examples of what telemarketers and scammers who impersonate Telstra staff say to customers on the telephone.
Telstra spokesman Steve Bannigan said the company was increasing its efforts to raise awareness about the unethical conduct of rogue telemarketers and telephone scammers.
"We know our customers receive phone calls from people impersonating Telstra staff, who try to switch them to another telephone company or try to gain access to their personal information.
"The conduct of these people makes it difficult for customers to tell the difference between a call made by an authentic Telstra representative and a call made by someone impersonating a Telstra representative."
Earlier this year, the ABC revealed scammers were posing as Australian Tax Office employees to take money from consumers.
You can report suspicious activity to www.scamwatch.gov.au
