Industry Information - Scam Alert

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The Internet is a wonderful tool for communications but it does expose businesses to scam, especially spurious booking enquiries. If an email looks suspicious it probably is and should be deleted. Most of these bogus booking enquiries are from overseas and involve the use of stolen credit cards.

If you suspect that you have received a scam email, check that the message is actually addressed to your email address and that the enquiry fits the type of accommodation you offer.  This can be an indication that the sender is 'phishing', attempting to get a response from a legitimate business that it may be possible to defraud.

Visit a free website www.binbase.com to see where a credit card originates. For example, a guest coming from one country would not have a card originating from another country (or would very rarely and certainly this would ring some alarm bells). By entering the first six numbers of the credit card you can check the origin and type of card used. Try it out with your own credit cards. (See Scam 4).

Scamwatch is a service on the website of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It has information about a wide range of scams including money transfers, lotteries, mobile phones, chain letters and scams on small businesses.

You may also have a visit from guests who wish to defraud you. See Scam 1 as an example.

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