APARTMENT OWNERS IN TREBINJE TARGETED BY HACKERS

Numerous accommodation providers in Trebinje have reported a high number of bookings from alleged guests from Ukraine and Russia in the past few days.

PHOTO: Pixabay

These individuals request communication via WhatsApp and offer to prepay via Western Union because they claim they are unable to pay in cash. However, on the day of check-in, they do not show up.

Earlier, the company "Booking" warned that such bookings represent a risk, as the so-called guests refuse to use their platform for communication. They advised users to contact their support service immediately upon receiving such bookings to report the issue and cancel the reservation, which is usually for at least seven days.

Apartment owners eagerly await guests who stay for a week, but this time, it's a scam. After booking the accommodation, the alleged guests send a message via Booking asking to continue the communication through a phone number available on WhatsApp. They then request payment via Western Union, claiming they cannot pay in cash.

The biggest issue is that the accommodation owner cannot cancel the booking directly through the Booking app. They must contact customer support at +38516439292 and explain the problem. 

The agent cannot cancel the reservation but will forward the issue to a higher-level team that can cancel the reservation and free up those dates for new, genuine guests.

Otherwise, accommodation providers can only wait until the day the alleged guests are supposed to check in, and then the following day, inform Booking that the guests did not show up.

The Trebinje Tourist Organization reports that several accommodation providers have forwarded information about these suspicious bookings in recent days.

"A similar situation has been attempted via email addresses with links that supposedly require data confirmation. This is a classic phishing attack, a form of identity theft, where access to personal data is granted and then misused," said the Trebinje Tourist Organization.

One Trebinje apartment owner shared a report about a scam attempt during a booking made through the "deepfake" app (which creates fake video and audio content imitating the appearance, facial expressions, or voice of another person so convincingly that the average person may not notice the difference).

"I want to inform you that, as an apartment owner, I have been a victim of a scam attempt and fake bookings in the last three days by guests who pretended to be Russian nationals. After making bookings on Booking, they tried to contact me through WhatsApp with the intention of prepaying via Western Union. To cut a long story short, after I checked some details, it turned out they planned to steal money from my account using deepfake technology. Fortunately, I provided them with card details that had no money, thus preventing them from succeeding in their attempt," said the apartment owner from Trebinje.