# Scammed through booking.com **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Tags:** fraud\ **Created:** [18 August 2023 16:59 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075 "2023-08-18T16:59:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 16:59 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/1 "2023-08-18T16:59:45Z")
Hi so first time using [booking.com](http://booking.com) and had a stay booked. On Monday I received an email from [booking.com](http://booking.com) saying that basically I needed to pay for the stay or my reservation would be cancelled I thought it was a bit dodgy but the email I received had previous genuine correspondence on from the hotel. I rang the hotel to check if this was genuine or not. She logged onto her side of the booking com and read the message at her end and said yeah its genuine. So I followed the link and paid £367. Literally just as I had paid the money and then the hotel rang me back and said don’t pay it is a scam through the system somewhere. I couldn’t believe it. Then a second payment came through to be approved to the scammers but I obviously declined the second payment. I got straight onto monzo and explained the situation. I have sent all info across to them. (Screenshots of the email and call log of when I rang the hotel). I keep messaging them every so often but they keep saying they have no update yet and it is still under investigation and with the specialist. I got onto booking.com.and sent all info to them. But they can’t do anything. They want a letter from monzo to say if they can dispute the payment or not. Does anyone have rough timescales on this. I am desperate to get the money back. £367 might not seem like a lot to some people but it really is a lot to me. I have three children one of whom is classed as disabled I had just received his dla the week before hand. Now I don’t have much left in the bank to get through the next two weeks. I had the cash saved in the house to pay for the hotel when we arrive but if i use that now and I don’t get any of the scammed money back I can’t take my children away. I feel so stupid for falling for this. I rang to check if it was genuine as I don’t believe it but when I was told it was genuine I just believed it. I’m going out my mind with worry. If anyone could just give me a rough time scale. Thank you ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 18:01 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/3 "2023-08-18T18:01:09Z")
Ok thanks. Thank you for your reply ---
**Author:** ![j06](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/j06/32/97044_2.png) [@j06](https://community.monzo.com/u/j06)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 20:00 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/4 "2023-08-18T20:00:04Z")
If you rang the hotel and they told you to pay, then ask them to refund you. ---
**Author:** ![Orinoco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Orinoco](https://community.monzo.com/u/Orinoco)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 20:05 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/5 "2023-08-18T20:05:22Z")
There must be a pretty critical security issue with [booking.com](http://booking.com) if there was a scam email that even showed up on their systems. Either the hotel or [booking.com](http://booking.com) would surely have to have been compromised for a scam email to be part of formerly legitimate email chain. If that’s what happened then that probably needs to be raised to [booking.com](http://booking.com) as they’d need to investigate how that happened. ---
**Author:** ![Orinoco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Orinoco](https://community.monzo.com/u/Orinoco)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 20:38 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/7 "2023-08-18T20:38:31Z")
That’s wild, you were right to question it but also no blame on you here for believing it because that’s insane. ---
**Author:** ![lpoolrob](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/lpoolrob/32/36348_2.png) [@lpoolrob](https://community.monzo.com/u/lpoolrob)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 21:10 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/8 "2023-08-18T21:10:48Z")
> [@Stawa](#): > > I rang the hotel to check if this was genuine or not. She logged onto her side of the booking com and read the message at her end and said yeah its genuine. > So I followed the link and paid £367. > Literally just as I had paid the money and then the hotel rang me back and said don’t pay it is a scam through the system somewhere. > [@j06](#): > > If you rang the hotel and they told you to pay, then ask them to refund you Absolutly this. I would make a lot of noise about it too. ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 21:29 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/9 "2023-08-18T21:29:47Z")
Im going to give them another call tomorrow and see what they say. ---
**Author:** ![Carlo1460](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/carlo1460/32/122202_2.png) [@Carlo1460](https://community.monzo.com/u/Carlo1460)\ **Post date:** [18 August 2023 22:37 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/11 "2023-08-18T22:37:56Z")
I’m sure there’s been a few mentioned on here about [booking.com](http://booking.com) Could’ve also been Reddit. Strangely don’t hear much of it at work though. ---
**Author:** ![sheona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@sheona](https://community.monzo.com/u/sheona)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 05:48 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/12 "2023-08-19T05:48:52Z")
Sorry to hear about this @Stawa. I can’t speak for how long it’ll take for one of the fraud team to get back to you, but I do hope you hear soon. I’ve removed the 2nd screenshot from your message as it contained your full email address - just a bit of advice to be careful of what information you share online, even if you think it’s a safe place! ---
**Author:** ![RichardL](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/richardl/32/96402_2.png) [@RichardL](https://community.monzo.com/u/RichardL)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 06:38 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/14 "2023-08-19T06:38:26Z")
> [@TTJJ](#): > > what part of spending the last amount of money you have on a hotel booking sounds like a good idea? This reply isn’t helpful. People budget for things in different ways, and having an unexpected expense like this, on top of the actual hotel payment can derail budgeting plans. The focus here should be on helping the OP with the situation they’re now in. We don’t need to start a needless debate about the OP’s spending and get this topic locked. ---
**Author:** ![j06](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/j06/32/97044_2.png) [@j06](https://community.monzo.com/u/j06)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 06:48 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/15 "2023-08-19T06:48:25Z")
I expect it’s having to pay twice and wait for a refund that’s blown a hole in the budget. ---
**Author:** ![o99](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/o99/32/83033_2.png) [@o99](https://community.monzo.com/u/o99)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 06:51 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/16 "2023-08-19T06:51:43Z")
It seems [booking.com](http://booking.com) has a significant problem with this type of thing > **[Mysterious leak of Booking.com reservation data is being used to scam customers](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/mysterious-leak-of-booking-com-reservation-data-is-being-used-to-scam-customers/)** > > Somehow, scammers keep accessing customer reservation details, other private data. ---
**Author:** ![RichardL](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/richardl/32/96402_2.png) [@RichardL](https://community.monzo.com/u/RichardL)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 07:01 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/17 "2023-08-19T07:01:20Z")
This is wild. I’ve always tried to avoid them anyway, by using them as a search engine and then booking direct with the hotel. There are often ways to get the same or a lower price than [booking.com](http://booking.com) sometimes with additional perks too. I don’t think I’ll be using them again. ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 07:10 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/18 "2023-08-19T07:10:27Z")
I had the cash saved up in the house to pay for the hotel ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 08:15 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/20 "2023-08-19T08:15:38Z")
So I rang the hotel asked to speak to a manager but one isn’t in apparently. The receptionist on the phone just apologised, said he would be having a stern conversation with the staff member who told me the email was genuine, basically nothing else he can do. He said ’ the good news is you can reschedule or cancel the booking free of charge as it’s not until October’ no good news about it. Just keep apologising I asked for a contact for a manager and I am going to email them a complaint. ---
**Author:** ![RichardL](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/monzo/user_avatar/community.monzo.com/richardl/32/96402_2.png) [@RichardL](https://community.monzo.com/u/RichardL)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 08:22 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/22 "2023-08-19T08:22:27Z")
> [@Stawa](#): > > £367 might not seem like a lot to some people but it really is a lot to me. I have three children one of whom is classed as disabled I had just received his dla the week before hand. Now I don’t have much left in the bank to get through the next two weeks. Personally if I were in this situation I would Flex the card payment whilst Monzo investigate. If you have Flex available maybe run it by Monzo beforehand on chat so it’s clear what you’re doing and why. There’s no interest when splitting the payment over 3 months and you’d only be £122 per month out of pocket until you get the money back. ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2023 08:27 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/23 "2023-08-19T08:27:44Z")
[Booking.com](http://Booking.com) can’t do anything until they receive a letter from the bank stating that they can’t dispute the payment. I’m just going to have to hope that I receive my money back at a later date Thanks everyone for your help ---
**Author:** ![josh\_huggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@josh\_huggy](https://community.monzo.com/u/josh_huggy)\ **Post date:** [11 September 2023 13:52 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/24 "2023-09-11T13:52:37Z")
Hi Stacey, I, too, fell victim to the phishing scam. When I received the message I called [booking.com](http://booking.com) to ask if it was legit and they had said it was. I have been waiting over 4 weeks for Monzo to investigate. [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) have been awful to deal with. I was scammed over 1.7k. Absolutely gutted to fall victim. ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [11 September 2023 13:55 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/25 "2023-09-11T13:55:57Z")
It’s shocking isn’t it. And what’s more shocking is having to wait all these weeks to get our own money back with no updates. Hope you get your money returned to you soon. ---
**Author:** ![Stawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Stawa](https://community.monzo.com/u/Stawa)\ **Post date:** [20 September 2023 10:46 UTC](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075/26 "2023-09-20T10:46:49Z")
I received a full refund from monzo today thankfully [Next page](https://community.monzo.com/t/scammed-through-booking-com/152075.md?page=2)