You are planning a holiday overseas. You search the internet and
see a great hotel deal. It's far cheaper than the rest. The
pictures look great. You can see yourself luxuriating in that huge
bed and diving into the beautiful blue pool.
So you send your money to the account given on the website. You
fly and take a taxi to the hotel looking forward to relaxing in
your lovely room and the pool.
But they've never heard of you. They never got your money.
You've been scammed. Your Internet communications were hijacked
by tech-savvy crooks who set up realistic looking websites and
'phish' to hook people just like you.
The one bit of good news is that you shouldn't feel silly.
You are not alone. The Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission warns scammers are getting better and better at hacking
into travel websites and diverting people booking holidays to their
own shonky bank accounts. They also set up realistic looking but
fake online listings for hotels and
