How to safeguard your travel plans | Vacation scams

Are you wondering how to avoid vacation scams? Nothing hurt more than a vacation scam for travel enthusiasts. People like me hardly get vacation but the sad reality is that scammers are ready to rip you off during your vacation trip. A first thought comes to our mind when we plan for a trip: what if we get scammed while on vacation? Travel scams are common and millions of people go through it. According to a recent survey, about 35% of Americans are victims of travel scam.

Do you want to enjoy a wonderful vacation trip without getting scammed? If yes, here are some helpful tips to safeguard your travel plan. Keep reading..

6 Effective Tips to Avoid Vacation Scams or Holidays Scams

Avoiding vacation scams is important to protect your money, luggage, and precious time. But people are unaware of how to avoid such scams. But today, I’ll share my personal experience with you to avoid holiday’s scams.

• Avoid third party booking

If you have a traveling plan on your vacations, book your flight, hotel, club membership etc directly. Don’t trust any third party online sites for booking because such third party apps do scams, charge you higher and provide lower quality services like third class hotels, flights. They don’t bother to compensate when you complain to them. Such frauds can ruin your vacations so try to avoid third parties’ applications for booking.

• Know about all types of vacation scams.

The best way to avoid vacations scams is to be aware of all types of scams of your destination while traveling. There are different types of traveling scams because Scammers use various tricks to trap you. The most common scam is when people stop by asking random questions like what time or any address, and their other partner comes and snatches what they have in their hands, like their wallet or shopping bag. Sadly, I also got trapped in their scam last year when I was visiting Greece.

The second most common scam is that local vendors sell you products like bracelets, chains, any local food, etc. When you give them money and ask for change, they usually go to get change because they don’t have it, but unfortunately, they don’t come back. There are so many common scams, like taxi meter scams, currency scams, etc., and you should know all of them so you can get an idea of how to deal with such situations.

• Do research about your destination.

When planning a trip on your vacations, always research your destination, like what places you will visit, like historical places, museums, clubs, casinos, and restaurants. Note down locations and the opening and closing timing of restaurants, clubs, and casinos. In this way, you will be able to travel safely because most tour guides misguide you in this case. so it is better to know about all the places to avoid this scam.

• Fake Officials

During your trip, you might see fake officials who will ask you about your important documents like your passport, visa, identity card, etc. but be aware of these kinds of people because after getting all your important documents. They will ask you for a bribe to return your documents. Many travelers are victims of a crafty vacation scam, and many of them lose all their money due to this travel scam.

Do you know what to do in this situation? First, ask them to show you their official identity cards if they have, then hand over your documents to them. If they refuse to show you their cards, ask them to bring you to the police station in a police van only. In this way, you can get rid of them if they are scammers.

• Check the taxi fare first

People usually book a taxi whenever we are on holidays and get scammed here. Yes, people in foreign countries don’t know about distance and fares, that’s why taxi drivers charge you a high amount, which is totally unfair.

The scam drivers use broken meters in order to charge you a high amount. This happened to me on my last vacation; the taxi drivers didn’t mention that the meter was not working in the first place, but when I arrived at my destination, I asked to check the meter for the fare. Then he said the meter was not working, so pay me 200$ for a single route. He charged me 70 percent more than the actual fare.

So, you better book a taxi via any trusted online app like Uber or Indrivers. If you are booking a local tax, ask your hotel management about the area. Before starting a ride, check if the taxi meter is working or not to avoid a scam on your vacations.

• Protect your pocket

Nothing is worse than picking your pocket while you are on vacation miles away from your home. But this happened a lot of times with a lot of travelers. Scammers usually bump into you and grab your stuff in nanoseconds, and you can stop this.

These pickpocket scammers are mostly seen at metro stations and steal your important stuff.

So, it is best for you to be careful at metro stations and overwhelmed bus stations to avoid such scams.

• Be aware of ATM Scams

One of the common vacation scams is ATM scams, and ATM skimmers steal your money using different methods. Usually, they use skimmer devices and attach them to ATM machines, recording your card details.

Moreover, they use sticky or plastic slips inside of the slot, which will cause your card to get stuck in the machine. Then, they will act as helpers and ask you to call a fake bank number. Again, the person on the other side will ask you for your bank details and withdraw your money.

So, to avoid such scams, always choose a reputable bank. If your card got stuck in an ATM machine for a long time, immediately go to the bank and file a complaint to get it back. Or you can call your bank and block your card immediately.

Conclusion

Vacationers are the easiest target for scammers because most of them are unaware of the environment of foreign countries. Therefore, they fall victim to scammers and lose their money, luggage, and important documents, etc.

In the end, when you are traveling, be careful about vacation scams. Most trips are awesome, but some people are trying to trick you. You should be prepared for common scams in the place you’re going. Trust your gut feelings, be careful, and ensure you are safe. Enjoy your trip, but be smart to avoid scams while traveling. Must Report scam to Respective Authority.

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