Booking.com has issued a warning, stating that travel scams are increasing due to artificial intelligence (AI).
According to Marnie Wilking, the company’s head of online safety, there has been “anywhere from a 500 to a 900% increase” in the previous 18 months.
She claimed that since generative AI technologies like ChatGPT exploded into the market, there has been a particularly noticeable surge in phishing, the practice of tricking people into giving over their financial details.
“Of course, we’ve had phishing since the dawn of email, but the uptick started shortly after ChatGPT got launched,” she stated.
“The attackers are definitely using AI to launch attacks that mimic emails far better than anything that they’ve done to date,” she stated.
Phishing attempts frequently aim to get victims to provide their credit card information.
Because websites like Booking.com and Airbnb let users post their own accommodations, scammers frequently target these platforms.
Once a victim pays, the con artists either disappear, leaving the victim without a place to stay, or they may attempt to defraud the victim of additional money by sending follow-up texts.
These kinds of con games have been around for many years, but they frequently feature glaring red flags, such misspellings and grammar faults.
