Travelers Booking Los Cabos Trips Urged To Watch Out For This Growing Scam

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Last Updated 1 year ago

It’s the busy summer travel season and scammers are out trying to take advantage of travelers excited about an upcoming vacation getaway.

According to a segment on a well-known nationwide morning television show in the United States, the scammers are targeting visitors booking a trip to Mexico.

That Hotel is Not Open Yet

The latest scam hitting the Internet involves travelers to Mexico booking beach resort hotel rooms for a hotel that is either nonexistent or is not even open yet.

They are taking the actual name of resorts under construction in popular vacation destinations, such as Los Cabos, and creating listings to lure travelers to book room nights.

When travelers look for the name on the web, a website and articles appear about the new resort hotel. That gives credibility to the scammer.

However, they are not going one step further to notice the hotel is under construction and not yet open for guests to reserve a room.

Fake Hotel and Property Listings

Fake hotel listings and vacation properties have long been an issue to contend with for guests in Los Cabos.

The popularity of the beach resort destination lends itself to scammers trying to capitalize on the demand for affordable resort hotel rooms in the area.

While the well-known third-party hotel and property reservation websites try to weed out the violators by banning them from the websites, it is usually after an unfortunate circumstance scamming a visitor that they finally get exposed.

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What Should Visitors Look Out For

According to a travel fraud watch expert, travelers should look out for a number of red flag issues about the hotel or property and the promoter.

The first major red flag is the request for payment that would be unusual for a hotel or vacation property, such as a prepaid credit card, bitcoin, or payment via CashApp, Venmo, or Zelle.

Those money transfers are unreversible once complete, and visitors should treat them just like handing cash over to someone.

The recommendation is to use a credit, not debit, card to book the reservation since it is easier to contest a charge rather than an actual debit from a checking or savings account.

Second, if a traveler is booking a hotel, look to see what the actual rates are for the hotel before reserving a popular resort at a “substantial” discount.

Most of the time, hotels and vacation properties reserve their best rates for selling rooms from their own website.

Also, remember the old saying that if a deal appears too good to be true, it probably is.

Last, be sure to confirm a resort or property reservation directly with the location before traveling.

Independent of the listing, find a number on another website to call the individual or resort property directly to confirm that they are indeed open and have a reservation listed.

That could have saved some people a lot of headaches from booking properties not yet open for reservations.

Some Good News

The good news is the major hotel and vacation property websites are making victims whole if they experience fraud on their portals.

However, travelers have to jump through a number of hoops to get their money back from the hosting company.

This includes the requirement to file a police report about the situation and submit the paperwork for review by the company.

This process is currently taking a number of days to complete, and travelers are having to wait to recover their needed vacation funds during the process.

This is not how most visitors to Los Cabos would prefer to start their vacation to the luxury beach resort destination.

However, following the above tips and being careful with money should help ensure that visitors to Los Cabos get their Mexican travel adventure started right.