A Swiftie claims she was scammed after using Booking.com for hotel stays. The TikTok user has posted details about her experience in the hopes that others don’t fall for the same grift.
TikToker Nandini (@nandinigotbored) starts her video by getting straight to the point.
“I’ve just been scammed on booking.com,” she says, before adding, “I think I’m quite wary and I’m quite on the ball with these things, but this one had me fooled. And now I’ve lost 200 quid.”
She continues to explain that, as Booking.com users know, if you book a hotel through the platform and, “the hotel you’re booked in sends you a message, you will get an email to say this hotel has messaged you.”
“That’s what I got,” she adds.
Nandini says that when she clicked on the link in her email, it even opened up to the actual Booking.com app. She shows a screenshot of the message, which stated that she would need to provide her credit card details or the reservation would be canceled.
“This didn’t scream anything unusual to me because normally if you’ve booked a room that you haven’t paid for it up front, they will ask you to put in the details of a card that is valid on the date of your check in,” she says, and adds, “Again, it’s in the actual official Booking.com app, so there is no reason to think this is odd.”
Once she had entered her card details, she says she was prompted to click a button to approve the process. She claims that it also stated that she would not be charged for the transaction, and that it was just for her card details.
“Of course, the money went out,” she says, and what tipped her off was that the page kept reloading and asking Nandini to re-approve the money that has been sent out. “So I thought, hang on a second, the money’s gone out, but this is telling me the money hasn’t gone out, something’s not right here.”
At this point the TikToker decided to contact the hotel directly. She says that when she asked if her booking had been reserved, the worker told her, “Yeah, this is a scam.”
Once she got off the phone with the hotel, Nandini says she found multiple users on Twitter detailing scams they fell for through Booking.com.
@nandinigotbored @Booking.com please advise! #bookingcom #hotelscam #financialscam #scam #phishing #holidayscam #hotel ♬ original sound – nandini
The video has gained over 2.1 million views and 87,000 likes as of this writing.
In a follow-up post, Nandini says her transaction is still pending and there isn’t anything she can do about it right now.
One comment on the creator’s original video read, “Got the message too and wrote Booking.com, they said ONLY my hotel was hacked. Nice to know that was in fact, not true.”
“Omg the FYP is FYPing! This happened to me today, luckily I thought it smelled off and emailed the hotel but still can’t figure out how its thru the app?” another wrote.
Nandini responded, “I assume booking have been compromised and they aren’t bothering to warn customers.”
“Booking has a massive security problem since quite a long time,” wrote a third. “If they don’t get this under control, customers will choose other platforms.”
“Should Booking take some responsibility?” asked someone else.
Nandini told the Daily Dot that, “With the message being within the app, I and many others have felt a false sense of security. There is a reasonable expectation of safety when using a platform as big as Booking.com, and for many people this has been destroyed.”
She adds that, “100s of people have left me comments or sent messages to share similar stories,” and, “The fact that Booking does not appear to have taken any steps to ensure their platform is safe is shocking.”
Lastly, Nandini says, “They have avoided taking accountability for this since 2018, (the earliest story I found.) I hope my video going viral helps to warn others and to highlight the issue.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Nandini via TikTok direct message and Booking.com via email.