Booking.com Warns of Massive Increase in AI-Driven Travel Scams and Phishing Attacks

Booking.com Warns of Massive Increase in AI-Driven Travel Scams and Phishing Attacks
Image credit: Forbes website 

Booking.com is raising alarms about the surge in travel scams driven by artificial intelligence (AI). The firm's internet safety boss, Marnie Wilking, reported a "500 to 900% increase" in scams over the past 18 months.

She highlighted a significant rise in phishing attacks, where individuals are deceived into giving away their financial details, since the emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. "The attackers are definitely using AI to launch attacks that mimic emails far better than anything that they've done to date," she noted.

Phishing attacks typically try to persuade people to provide their card details by sending them fake but convincing internet booking links. Websites like Booking.com and Airbnb are frequent targets because they allow users to list their own accommodations.

Once a payment is made, scammers either disappear, leaving the buyer without a place to stay, or attempt to scam them further through follow-up messages. These types of scams have existed for decades but often included telltale signs of fraud, such as spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

However, at the Collision technology conference in Toronto, Ms. Wilking warned that AI was making scams harder to detect due to its ability to generate realistic images and much more accurate text in multiple languages. She emphasized the importance of two-factor authentication for both hotels and travelers, describing it as "the best way to combat phishing and credential stealing."

Despite her criticisms of how scammers are exploiting AI, Ms. Wilking acknowledged that the technology is also helping Booking.com quickly eliminate fake hotels that attempt to deceive users. "We've set up AI models to detect those and either block them from getting on there to begin or take it down before there's any booking," she explained.

She also urged people to be more vigilant than ever when clicking on links.