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- Last-minute tricks: what to expect from scammers in the season of booking New Year's tours
Last-minute tricks: what to expect from scammers in the season of booking New Year's tours
Fraudsters can use various schemes to deceive Russians during the New Year's tour booking season, experts have warned about this. The high demand for January travel encourages tourists to quickly make financial decisions in order to fix favorable prices and guarantee a vacation. Against this background, their vigilance decreases, which is what the attackers use. For more information about what schemes to expect from scammers during the New Year's tour booking season, how dangerous they are and how to protect yourself from them, read the Izvestia article.
Why is the topic of booking New Year's tours interesting to scammers
The peak demand for booking New Year's tours creates ideal conditions for fraudsters due to several key factors, says CEO of Secure-T (Solar Group) in an interview with Izvestia Khariton Nikishkin. Firstly, high demand encourages tourists to make quick financial decisions in order to fix favorable prices and guarantee holidays during the period of greatest demand, which reduces their vigilance.
"Secondly, scammers artificially create a sense of scarcity by offering last—minute deals, which forces people to make purchases without carefully checking the offer," says the expert. — In addition, a significant average check for New Year's tours makes this type of fraud especially profitable for intruders.
Fraudsters hunt for personal data and finances, and booking tours is an area where there are both, adds Alexandra Shmigirilova, GR director of the Security Code information security company. At the same time, more and more people plan trips online rather than visiting agencies in person. This digitalization opens up great opportunities for intruders: using modern technologies, they find loopholes to deceive customers and often succeed.
What schemes on the topic of New Year's tours are possible in 2025
At the end of 2025, we should expect the evolution of traditional fraud schemes for booking New Year's tours towards digital channels, says Khariton Nikishkin. The most likely ones are the creation of fake travel agencies in messengers and social networks, where obviously unrealistic discounts will be offered, as well as the use of clone sites of legal tour operators, where only one letter will be changed in the address.
— These resources will be promoted through contextual advertising and spam mailings, in order to collect payments and confidential data of citizens, - says the interlocutor of Izvestia.
At the end of 2025, there is an increase in fake aggregator sites and fake pages of well-known companies on social networks, adds Karen Baghdasaryan, a leading information security consultant at R-Vision. Scammers post real photos of hotels and positive reviews, but links lead to fake payment forms. Phishing mailings with tour operator logos and messages like: "Confirm your reservation by the end of the day, otherwise the discount will be gone."
In addition, scammers can advertise in thematic chat rooms and channels, as well as send personal messages with "travel draws," said a data analyst at the Coordination Center for domains .RU/.Russian Federation Evgeny Pankov. It is also possible that fraudulent Telegram bots may appear, offering "selection of a tour at the best price" and automatically collecting personal data.
— Also, with the growing interest in traveling in Russia, we can expect an increase in the number of fraudulent schemes related to the purchase of train tickets, — says the expert. — Recently, Domain Patrol experts identified and blocked several phishing sites disguised as the official website of Russian Railways.
Meanwhile, the technical implementation of deception schemes is becoming more sophisticated, which makes it difficult to recognize it. In particular, according to Alexandra Shmigirilova, if previously a fake website could be identified by poor-quality design, today, with the help of artificial intelligence, attackers easily create convincing fakes. It now takes much more time and attention to check them than many are willing to give.
What schemes on the topic of New Year's tours have been encountered before
Fraudsters have been trying to speculate on New Year's tours for several years, experts interviewed by Izvestia say. In particular, earlier scammers often used schemes with "burning tours" when, under the pretext of an urgent sale of the allegedly remaining places, they offered vouchers at suspiciously low prices, demanding instant full payment, says Marina Probets, an Internet analyst and expert at Gazinformservice.
— Another option is to create phishing sites that mimic well—known travel agencies to steal bank card data when making reservations, as well as offers of "exclusive" charter flights and tours, which eventually turned out to be invalid, — says the expert.
In previous seasons, the most common methods of fraudsters were the sale of fake air tickets and tours through unofficial platforms, fraud with prepayment for rental housing using someone else's photo content, as well as manipulation of conditions after payment, when a tourist is offered a lower-quality tour at the same cost under a far-fetched pretext, and the difference is appropriated, adds Khariton Nikishkin.
The end of the year is a time when the risk of phishing and scamming activity increases, says Tatiana Kulikova, senior content analyst at Kaspersky Lab. By resorting to social engineering methods, they can mimic, for example, hotel booking platforms, hotel websites, carrier pages and ticket aggregators. Attackers may be interested in the credentials of potential travelers, their financial information and bonus points in various services.
—As a rule, attackers can get such information using malware or phishing," the expert notes. — In addition, scammers can steal users' money: for example, take payment for a reservation and disappear.
What are the dangers of New Year's Tour schemes and how to protect yourself from them
Fraudulent schemes on New Year's tours are primarily aimed at stealing money, and their victims may be users who are interested in purchasing vouchers for winter holidays, says the head of BI.ZONE DRP Dmitry Kiryushkin. However, in some cases, people may lose not only money, but also personal data. By transmitting sensitive information, victims may lose access to accounts in various services.
— The main danger of such schemes is that a person himself transmits sensitive data to fraudsters — passport information, bank card details, as well as SMS codes, allegedly "to confirm the reservation," adds Evgeny Pankov.
As soon as a user provides their personal or financial information, they immediately end up with fraudsters. The consequences can be different: from the complete loss of funds and access to accounts to phone blocking or registration of loans and other debt obligations in the name of a person, emphasizes Alexandra Shmigirilova.
Nikita Novikov, a cybersecurity expert at Angara Security, advises you to follow several security rules in order to protect yourself from such threats:
- book tickets and hotels only on official websites or trusted aggregators, and not through links in social networks and messengers;
- check the seller's reputation, study reviews about him on independent platforms, clarify the company's contacts and its real address;
- when clicking on links, check the spelling of the domain name of the travel agency or carrier;
- avoid transferring money to individual cards and use secure payment methods.
It is important to remember that scammers often play on emotions, creating an artificial deficit or a limited duration of the "discount on the promotion." If the offer seems too profitable, and the seller insists on an urgent decision, this is a reason to be wary, concludes the interlocutor of Izvestia.
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