The five worst travel mobile phone scams to avoid include robocalls, fake notifications, fake QR codes, travel verification and fake AI family member voice scams that are trying to steal your money and/or identity.
Mobile phones, especially smartphones are one of the best travel devices ever invented. However, their use increases the risk of potential financial and identity theft scams. Robocalls with lifetime deals, fake QR codes, trip verification text messages and phone calls and fake AI relatives are all problems for cellphone user travelers.
Here are the five worst travel phone scams to avoid.
Robocalls with deals are too good to be true.
Robocalls with holiday deals:
I doubt you’ll receive many robocalls if you have a phone. Sales robocalls are illegal unless you have given written permission for the company to call you. This appears to have stopped no companies, nor hackers and thieves. Frankly, if someone breaks the law to call you, chances are they are running a scam. You can usually recognize robocalls. It usually starts with an automated message with a strange “caller ID”. Then there is usually a long pause before someone comes on the line with you.
If it is a robocall, I recommend hanging up. Generally, I don’t answer any calls with a “Caller ID” name or number that I don’t recognize, plus I’m also mindful that “Caller ID” can be easily spoofed.
If you answer the call and the caller starts describing their deal, don’t forget that if a deal is too good to be true, it usually is. If they don’t disclose specific details of the deal, don’t require full payment when booking while you’re talking on the phone or don’t charge a high enough fee for a free vacation, hang up. Whenever I know a call is a robocall, I hang up.
Fake notifications by text or phone call are designed to steal your money and personal information.
Fake notification via text message or phone call:
A while ago I received a text message on my smartphone with an urgent message that my tolls on Florida’s SunPass system were past due. It said I owed $75 in tolls and fees. It warned me that if I didn’t pay immediately, there would be a $100 fine. The text message contained a payment link. The link was strange it went to a fake Sunpass website that looked real. Luckily, I recognized the scam right away and deleted the message.
How can you recognize it? Check the link to see if it is legitimate or not. Is anyone visiting a fake payment site? The urgent tone of the text message should set off an alarm code for me and everyone else.
Are you wondering how you got hacked? Sometimes it’s just a mass text message hack. Other times a social media post can be a cheap gift. Can’t tell how you got the message.
The same message may come in the form of a phone call. They are calling to save your money. They will then send you an email or text with a link to their fake payment portal. Generally, legitimate companies do not call or text their customers.
If you find a scam text, delete it. If you receive a fake phone call, disconnect the phone. Never give personal information to unknown agents. Not only will they take your money, but they will also, as you guessed it, sell the personal information they learn about you.
QR code sticker overlay is used to hide the real one and send it to a fake payment portal to steal your money.
QR codes placed on menus, signs and kiosks:
I’m sure you’ve seen QR code stickers at cafes, museums, bus stops, airports, taxi stands, park benches, etc. all over the world. Some restaurants place QR codes on their menus and tables. In many places it is easy to put fake stickers in place of real stickers. Fake people send you to fake order and payment pages. Many fake pages are professionally designed to look like real pages.
Before using a QR code, check to see if it is an overlay covering the actual QR code sticker. While traveling in Australia some time ago I came across several fake overlays. On the venue’s site, make sure the URL makes sense. If you are in a restaurant, it is better to go directly to the restaurant site, not through the QR code. If you want to buy tickets through QR code, do not do so. Go directly to the venue’s site. If you have to use the QR code on the sticker, pay by credit card. They are more secure than debit cards.
Travel verification requests by phone calls and text messages are rarely anything more than a scam to obtain your personal information.
Travel Verification Scams:
A reader wrote to me about how he almost got tricked into giving personal information and credit card information to a scammer. A call came to his cellphone to verify his airline ticket information. The voice said that there was a problem with their reservation. It was a scammer posing as an airline agent. The fake agent said he needed to verify the reader’s reservation and payment information to fix the reservation problem, otherwise he would not be able to fly the next day.
He was a little skeptical. He had just accessed his account from his cellphone and successfully obtained his electronic boarding pass. He deliberately gave the wrong locator of reservation by one letter. When the so called agent said ok, he realized it was a scam and hung up the phone.
If you get a call like this from an airline, hotel, travel agent, railway, etc., tell them that you will call them back and hang up. On the off chance that the call was legitimate, call the company directly from their known reservation phone number.
Fake AI generated voices of traveling family members are used by scammers to steal money and personal information from family members, especially elderly members, through phone calls.
AI simulates relative’s voice saying they have run out of money, phone call:
In August, a friend’s father thought he had received a call from his grandson, my friend’s son, who was traveling in Europe. That person looked exactly like his grandson. He said he was out of cash and needed help. He asked her to give him cash or e-gift card. Luckily, before he was able to enter the information to send the $5,000, my friend came to the door and asked who he was talking to. “This is David from Paris,” said Gramps. My friend got suspicious and took the phone. He used the family challenge question. The answer was wrong. He hung up the phone. His father shouted, “Why did you do that?” My friend said, “You didn’t use the challenging question you taught us as kids. It was a fake AI voice, a scam.”
Each family should have a code word to let you know you are in trouble if you are under pressure and a challenge question/answer to prove identity. They should be simple, clear, easy to remember and something that no one but the family can use. The family should keep it confidential and safe.
My friend and I speculate that a hacker knew the grandson was visiting from posts and his grandfather’s replies on Instagram. The scammer probably used a video to train the AI to fake the grandson’s voice. Never post about a trip before or during the trip.
Learning about these five scams is just the first step. All travelers should remain vigilant when receiving calls, emails or texts, as well as scanning QR codes, to avoid these scams, which can become a financial and identity nightmare.
After working for several years in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive, and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a technical consulting company and later restarted his photography business, NSL Photography. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a public health engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a renowned corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned writes about travel and photography around the world, as well as runs photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s photography blog and gallery.
