About 50% of Russians do not check the security of travel services.

Almost half of Russians do not check the security and authenticity of websites where they buy tickets, tours or book accommodation.: 10% never do this, and 33% do it only sometimes, according to a study by Kaspersky Lab, which was reviewed by Izvestia on July 31.

The vast majority of Russians surveyed use online services when planning a trip. Transport tickets are most often searched for on aggregator websites and carrier pages (46% each), as well as on travel agency websites (24%). There are still many who prefer to purchase tickets offline: at the offices of travel agencies (25%) and carriers (20%).

Russians most often use specialized online booking services (46%), as well as hotel websites (36%) to find and book accommodation. Approximately one in ten users searches for suitable options on social networks and instant messengers (12%). 45% use the services of travel agencies through the website or office.

"Attackers often imitate popular services, betting on the inattention of users, and through them they steal money and personal data. Therefore, it is important to verify the authenticity of the resource: carefully check the URL, study user reviews," said Olga Altukhova, senior content analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

Freeway: Russians will travel to Vladimir and Yaroslavl in autumn

Where else will tourists go and how much will it cost them?

The most important thing in travel for most Russians is the cost of travel — 73%. Other significant factors include climate and weather (65%), nature (60%), culture and attractions (54%), and personal safety (52%). Almost half of the respondents prefer to travel by plane (48%), the second most popular mode of transport is train (27%).

Domestic destinations are the most popular among Russian tourists. Among those who plan to travel somewhere in the coming year, more than half plan to travel only in Russia (57%). As for those Russians who are going to travel abroad, a third of them (33%) indicated the countries of the Middle East (Turkey, UAE, Israel) as their planned destination, and Turkey is the absolute leader among the countries — 26% of those planning a trip abroad chose it. When developing their schemes, fraudsters take into account which destinations are most popular with tourists, the company's experts say.

"Scammers actively use the topic of travel in their schemes. By studying the habits of tourists and popular destinations, they create the most convincing attack scenarios. For example, phishing mailings with "burning" vouchers at favorable prices for families with children may look like real offers. Most of these schemes are based on social engineering methods: a user can accidentally access a fake website that mimics a popular booking service, and eventually lose money or compromise personal data," the expert noted.

In order not to become a victim of fraudsters, she warned, it is important to remain vigilant, be critical of overly tempting offers, not enter confidential data on suspicious sites and use comprehensive security measures that will prevent you from clicking on a phishing or spam link.

On July 26, the Department for Combating the Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia advised not to use the screen demonstration function on phones when communicating in messengers. When using this method, a person runs the risk of transferring their data to fraudsters.

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