Got a scam email about my holiday

Soldato
Joined
1 Apr 2014
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Location
Aberdeen
I'm jetting off to Dallas in April to see the eclipse and booked my hotel via Expedia, so I was very alarmed to get an email purporting to be from Expedia saying my hotel booking had been cancelled. A quick check showed that the reference number did not match but everything else did - hotel name, dates, everything. And they forgot to give the agent's name. Two tell-tales. So naturally, I did not ring the number in the email - a quick Google says it's a scam number - but Expedia's UK office who confirmed that all was well. And I look on the hotel's website and see that my reservation is still there. So there's been a data leak somewhere. Or is this the hotel themselves trying it on?
 
more than likely data sharing to third parties one of whom is likely compiling data sets of this information and selling it to scammers at a fixed price. Scammers then use it to attempt to scam people with what could easily confuse or appear genuine to a vulnerable person.
 
FFS! They've just tried to follow it up with a telephone call from America. Of course I immediately rang off and rang their UK office - though I spoke to an American so maybe I was routed to their America office - and confirmed that all was still well.
 
And now I'm worried. I've just received two emails purporting to be from Expedia, one (with the correct name) following up the phone call and another offering alternative hotels nearby at no extra cost. The second gives an incorrect reference number and the same scam telephone number.
 
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My dad just had a similar thing happen but not with Expedia... it was all very convincing except the use of a co.in domain instead of co.uk wonder if there is some common data leak in the back end/companies used for this kind of stuff somewhere.
 
We had something similar about 3 years ago for a Spain holiday but it was with a major company.
Ringing the company from the website confirmed we were still at the hotel BUT the email had come from them and they couldn't explain it.
About two days to go we got the same email so rang from the website and they confirmed all was OK and they had sent the email?
 
And I've just spoken to the hotel company directly and they confirm all is well.

My dad just had a similar thing happen but not with Expedia... it was all very convincing except the use of a co.in domain instead of co.uk wonder if there is some common data leak in the back end/companies used for this kind of stuff somewhere.

This latest email appears to come from Expedia. The reply address is Expedia. Is this Expedia themselves trying to scam me by rebooking me at a cheaper hotel for the same money?
 
Well, more fool me. I forgot to check the review sites before booking via Expedia. The reviews on Trustpilot are terrible.

Wow that review rating has tanked. I used to book a fair amount through Expedia years ago and never had any problems.

At this point I would ignore all further correspondence from anything claiming to be from Expedia, and as above report them to the DPO.
 
I got an update. I sent the email to Expedia and asked them for clarification. The last email was indeed from them. They have now given the correct reference number. Allegedly it was all due to an administrative ****-up. This does not explain why this team were saying one thing when the Expedia personnel to whom I also spoke said something different.
 
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