Jacksonville, Florida – New data from cybersecurity firm McAfee predicts that one in four people will fall victim to travel fraud this summer.
The American Automobile Association, also known as AAA, is already predicting a record summer travel season.
Approximately 44 million people will travel more than 50 miles from home this Memorial Day weekend.
“What we're seeing now is 2024, four years after the pandemic, and the travel industry is just making a huge comeback,” said AAA spokeswoman Aisha Diaz.
With travel booming, there can also be a parade of scammers lurking to steal people's information.
Abhishek Karnik, head of threat intelligence research at McAfee, said it's much easier to do that with the help of artificial intelligence.
“Some of the more common scams we see these days are deepfakes, which impersonate the actual person on screen in a video call. These are the most sophisticated, but they also use AI to generate more realistic emails. If you do, it will be simpler,” Karnik said.
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More than one in three Americans said the rise of AI and deepfakes has changed their confidence in planning and booking vacations, according to a survey conducted by McAfee.
Almost 25% of victims lost more than $1,000 to a single travel scam.
“Be careful when booking, as you may come across copycat or phishing websites that say, for example, booking.com but have the O changed to a zero. is similar to booking.com, but may not be booking.com,” Karnik said.
Karnik said it's also important to have a degree of skepticism when reading online reviews before making a reservation.
“Don't just take everyone's word for it,” Karnik says.
The FTC said other tell-tale signs of fraud include:
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Promise of “free” vacation
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Use wire transfer or gift cards to pay
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Exclusive holiday details
Experts also suggest being especially careful when scanning QR codes or using public Wi-Fi, as scammers can easily steal your information.
If you or someone you know is a victim of a scam, you can report it to the FTC by visiting ftc.gov.
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