Experts say 1 in 4 people will fall victim to travel scams this summer. Here’s how to prevent that

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – New data from the cybersecurity company McAfee predicted one in four people will fall victim to travel scams this summer.

The American Automobile Association, also known as AAA, is already predicting a record-breaking summer travel season.

Nearly 44 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day weekend.

“What we’re seeing now is in 2024, four years after the pandemic, the travel industry has just come back in a big way,” AAA Spokesperson Aixa Diaz said.

With booming travel, this could also become a parade of scammers lurking to steal people’s information.

Abhishek Karnik, the Head of Threat Intelligence Research at McAfee said it’s a lot easier to do it with the help of artificial intelligence.

“Some of the scams that you’re seeing more recently are deepfakes, which in a video call, you might actually fake the person on screen. Those are the most advanced ones but the more simple ones are when someone uses AI to generate a more realistic email,” Karnik said.

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McAfee conducted a survey that found more than one in three Americans said the rise of AI and deepfakes changed their level of trust in planning and booking vacations.

Nearly 25% of victims lost $1,000 or more on a single travel scam.

“You want to be vigilant when you’re booking because you could run across copycat websites or phishing websites that say for example, booking.com but they change the Os with zeros. It looks and reads like booking.com but it may not be booking.com,” Karnik said.

Karnik said it’s also important to have a level of skepticism when looking through online reviews before booking.

“Don’t take everyone’s word for it,” Karnik said.

The FTC said there are other tell-tale signs things of a scam like:

• A promise of a “free” vacation

• Using wire transfers or gift cards for payment

• And limited details about your vacation

Experts also suggested being extra cautious when scanning a QR code and using public Wi-Fi, that’s an easy way for scammers to 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.