Family of five horrified after booking £3,500 Algarve holiday only to discover a week before departure they have been scammed by a fake TripAdvisor account
The devastated mum believes she was stung by a website posing as TripAdvisor targeting families over summer
A FAMILY were horrified when they discovered a week before a dream £3,200 holiday they had been scammed by a fake TripAdvisor website.
Shuk Potter had booked a 12-day trip to the Algarve for her husband Andy and three children, Jack, aged 13, Charlie, aged nine, and Emily, aged six.
The 48-year-old sent 3,500 Euros to what she thought was the official TripAdvisor website for the August 13 holiday.
But she was horrified to learn when her emails went unanswered that the holiday was a fake.
She now thinks the booking was made on a website posing as TripAdvisor - and the company has since confirmed it was "wholly unconnected" to them.
Shuk, from Potters Bar, North London, had messaged TripAdvisor, who dealt the devastating blow that they had no record of her family trip.
She said: "Part of me feels stupid, but at the time we checked it out and it looked genuine.
"We got the accommodation sorted, and got an email saying the booking was confirmed.
"They said the dates were available, and the money would be put in a holding account until we had checked in, which is what the TripAdvisor policy is.
"There were reviews on the page, we even checked out the CEO."
The mum believes she was victim of a "sophisticated hack" used to find out what specifications the group needed, and to target them based on the information with imitation webpages.
Shuk said: "We've been told the bank can't help.
"We were devastated. It was more than £3,000 down the drain.
"The kids know we managed to find somewhere else but they are unaware why. For me, it has really knocked my confidence."
Her family and another they were due to travel with agreed to split the cost of a trip to coastal town Portimao.
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She stumbled across the luxury villa complete with swimming pool while trawling the web and made the booking.
After a day passed with no contact, she contacted the official TripAdvisor website, who emailed her back saying they never accepted payment by bank transfer.
The devastated family reported the fraud to police but were not optimistic that they would have the money returned.
But despite the scam, they managed to find another villa so the flights and hire car which had been booked were put to use.
A spokesman for TripAdvisor said: "We were very concerned to learn of Shuk's experience, and our Trust & Safety team has completed a thorough investigation.
"We've confirmed that this scam was wholly unconnected to TripAdvisor, and our sites remain safe and secure.
"We have no record of Shuk using our sites throughout her experience.
"We don't know how or where this scam originated, but we do know that the "TripAdvisor" pages and email address she communicated with were not authentic.
"We've asked the traveller for further information so we can report these fraudulent pages to the relevant service provider, and we've advised her to contact her bank and the police.
"Unfortunately, scammers are hard at work across the internet. This form of scam is thankfully rare."
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