I blew $150 on a fake hostel booking site and almost had no place to sleep in Barcelona

Booked through a site that looked exactly like Hostelworld but wasn't. Showed up at 10pm and the place had no record of me. Had to scramble and pay double for a last minute room at some random hotel. Hostel worker said this happens like 5 times a week. Has anyone else gotten tricked by those lookalike booking sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew70314d ago

5 times a week?" That's wild, you'd think the real site would have shut them down by now.

charlesb4213d ago

Yeah but the thing nobody seems to get is that these fake sites stay up because they pay for ads just like anyone else. Google and Facebook don't really check what you're selling, they just take your money and run the ad. I've seen moving companies get ripped off by these scammers for years and the ad platforms never do anything about it until a hundred people complain. The real company probably reported them already but it takes forever to get a response from the big tech companies. They're making money off those ads so they drag their feet. That's the part that gets me - the real site is trying to fight back but the system is set up to help the scammers.