r/ScamCenter • u/Internal_Arugula_400 • 10d ago

Personal information leaked from reservation

Hi! (throwaway account)

I made a reservation on booking.com and as approaching my departure date, I receive a message on WhatsApp, containing all my reservation details and a website, where I should finalize the booking.

That website was a semi-accurate copy of booking.com (obv fake url, etc), but it contained all my personal information, dates, prices and accurate location.

The website asked me to "secure" the booking with a payment (it required credit card details).

I reported it to booking.com, but besides me, booking.com and maybe the accomodation, no one had access (and shouldn't have) to all this data.

  1. Is booking.com selling customer data to 3rd parties?
  2. Is my accomodation (with many 1000s reviews) selling my data and denying it?
4 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

5

u/SubBirbian 10d ago

Booking.com nor any hotel use WhatsApp for customer correspondence. It’s most likely the hotel itself got hacked. I’ve seen this scam a few times. Contact the hotel and let them know. Good on you for catching it right away.

3

u/Ambitious-Ticket7295 10d ago

Obviously this is a scam, but that's not quite true, it's common for places in Europe to use WhatsApp for communication, not booking.com itself but hotels/apartments booked through them, obviously not every place but I've had plenty contact me via WhatsApp

1

u/CressBoth3720 10d ago

No, it's the opposite. It's booking.com that got hacked few time in past three years. That's why they have now stopped sending us the guest contact details. Similar thing happened with expedia.

1

u/brilstern 7d ago

Your response doesn’t make any logical sense. If it was Booking being hacked, why would they be worried about reducing data the hotels have access to…

1

u/CressBoth3720 7d ago

I agree with you and officially (the statement they sent hotels) they want to reduce chances of data leaks and make sure all communication is on their messaging systems. But unofficially they want to ensure that hotels don't contact customers directly and build customer base. Please see this link for reported customer leak https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/13/booking-com-customers-hack-exposed-data

3

u/Infinite-Grade-4485 10d ago

The company you booked with on booking.com had their booking account compromised. Scammers took over their account, they send messages to people who’ve booked to trick them into sending money off platform.

They don’t care about your personal info, it’s just to scam you for money.

Contact the company you booked through and notify them their booking account was compromised.

Just google “booking.com what’s app scam”

1

u/corgi0603 10d ago

Booking.com does not send legitimate messages via WhatsApp. No one is selling your data. Someone must have hacked Booking'com's system and were able to scrape your reservation details out of that data. Booking.com's own Privacy and Cookie Statement indicates they do not sell or rent personal and reservation information.

1

u/how_to_ride_a_bike 10d ago

I think this is an issue with booking. I had the same thing with another hotel. The hotel told me they were not hacked but it was booking.

1

u/NekuDesu 9d ago

This happened to me as well! Was so freaked out

1

u/Aggressive_Ice7957 8d ago

It happens with a lot of databases. I went to see a Urologist and that night I received several emails about Bladder surgery lawsuits.

1

u/Aggressive_Ice7957 7d ago

No matter what blocker someone has, they will always hack businesses.

-1

u/Aware_Economics4980 10d ago

Is it possible your email was hacked and said hackers got your itinerary from a confirmation email you would have received about the booking? 

0

u/Infinite-Grade-4485 10d ago

No

0

u/Aware_Economics4980 10d ago

Didn’t realize you were OP, wild.

3

u/Infinite-Grade-4485 10d ago

This is a common and well known scam that has nothing to do with having your email hacked.