Stop! Don’t click that "Payment Failed" link 🛑✈️

And this actually happened to me. We didn't fall foul of it, but there was a well-known villa booking company in Europe, and they had somebody infiltrate their system, and people had money taken. Beware of holiday accommodation and booking scams. And this is where fraudsters infiltrate legitimate booking platforms to steal holiday payments. We didn't their system, and people had money taken. Then somebody contacted us, but we didn't make a payment. So, it does occur. And what typically happens is you receive a message that appears to come through the official messaging system of a website. And there have been cases of it being on booking. com, and it claims there is an issue with your payment, and provides a link to re-enter your card details. And because the message is inside the official app or website, it looks highly convincing. So, how do you avoid it? Legitimate travel companies won't ask you to provide payment details via external links sent in the chat message. So, if you are prompted to re-enter details, contact the booking provider's customer service directly using the phone number on their official website. Just to add another personal element to this, we were personally impacted by a fraud that occurred on booking. com, which we didn't book a hotel at all, but one was booked with chats going on within the area on the official app showing that a booking had taken place, and the fraudster was communicating with a supposed hotel. So, just to say it does occur. I mean, it Everything of that was unwound, and it wasn't a problem, but do be aware that these sort of things do happen with travel companies.