Caution: booking dot com apparently hacked
 

Reposting message from the HU Facebook page, as I know this 'booking' site is a useful tool for many on here.

"For those of you who have hotel reservations with booking dot com please be aware of a potential data breach. I have a number of bookings next month for an EU tour and yesterday received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be the hotel manager for one of our booked hotels. They knew my correct name, mobile number and booking details (Inc price) and asked me to confirm the booking by following a link. This took me to what appeared to be an official booking dot com page. Being a naturally suspicious person I didn't fill in any personal details and contacted the hotel directly, who confirmed that booking dot com appear to have had a data breach and to ignore the message. A quick search on the Web confirms this has happened but booking dot com are currently not admitting it publicly and blaming the hotels concerned. Another one of our group received a similar message yesterday. Just wanted to make everyone aware as these scams are very believable if taken at face value."

https://arstechnica.com/information-...scam-customers

Interesting. I had a few false credit card charges several weeks ago and had to replace a card while traveling in Canada. I'd been using Booking.com to reserve motel rooms along the way. This is not necessarily evidence that they were responsible in any way, but it does suggest continued caution.

Pinged this article to my friend who is currently in Morocco.....she has been using booking.com . Her card has been compromised.....an initial £1.53 dip in the water , followed by ten attempted charges as far apart as turkey and Singapore. Fortunately the card company stopped it all .