If you've planned a vacation with Booking.com, then you might want to listen up. The travel and hotel reservation platform has notified its customers of a serious security breach. Users' personal information, such as names, emails, phone numbers, and even booking details, has been compromised as part of a security breach. Now, hackers have been reaching out to users. Here is what you need to know.
Hackers Get Into Booking.com
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A Booking.com user shared a screenshot on Reddit of an email they received from the travel and hotel reservation platform. In the email, the site informs the user that "we recently noticed suspicious activity affecting a number of reservations." Additionally, they detailed the type of information that has been potentially compromised.
They wrote, "Based on the findings of our investigation to date, accessed information could include booking detail(s) and names, emails, addresses, phone numbers associated with the booking, and anything that you may have shared with the accommodation." To add insult to injury the user shared that they had reported a security breach 15 days prior. When they shared this information the platform claimed "everything was fine."
Now, they are sending out this message to multiple users, "which clearly shows this is not an issue with just one hotel, but likely something related to their booking management app or security systems." With access to the booking information, hackers have been pretending to be hotels and reaching back out to users. The NY Post says that some users have reported phishing emails where the hackers ask for "reconfirmation of payment" or "verify their identity."
As a result, Booking.com urges users to confirm details only directly through them and not to answer any emails or text links.
This User Is Not Alone
The user who shared the screenshot on Booking.com is not alone. Several comments under the post verified that they have also received this email and have been dealing with stressful situations. Here are a few of the comments left under the post.
- "I got the same email today. I'm not sure what to do!"
- I've had two scam experiences with Booking.com now and haven't fallen for them, as I got an email from Booking.com to tell me about a breach, but it makes me wonder how secure their systems are and whether to use them anymore. First time I got WhatsApp messages from India and was clear they were fake as booking was in bali. Second time a bit more convincing, where I got an email from the "owner" who also messaged me within the actual app to say they were canceling my booking and asking me to rebook with them directly.... I messaged booking.com who said the booking is still active but to get a message within the actual app is scary stuff. Never rebook or give payment outside their system. If in doubt, completely cancel and go elsewhere to book."
