Protect Yourself from Summer Scams

You can protect yourself easily from summer scams if you know what to look for. Summer always seems to be the time when the most scams occur, maybe it is because vacationers have let down their guard and in a happy place due to the warm weather. Going on vacation to an unknown destination can lead you to being scammed. There are many reasons that scams occur, so it is best if you protect yourself from summer scams and you can do that by reading the most popular summer scams below.

 Hotel Check In Scam

This again is another late night scam that occurs often in the summer. You arrive to your hotel and you check in, then head to your room. About a half an hour later the phone rings while you are brushing your teeth, so you can go to bed. You answer the call and the person on the phone says they are the front desk and your credit card has been denied and they need the credit card details once again to confirm your account. You are just tired, so you give the details of your credit card, then head off to bed. Maybe, you don’t think about it again until you get home from vacation and you find out quickly you have been had by the hotel check in scam.

 Private Rentals

The vacation rental scam is a common summer scam. You are going to take a last minute vacation, so you start searching classified websites and your local newspaper to find a summer vacation rental. You find one and being you found it at the last minute you decide to pay for the summer vacation rental upfront, because you don’t want to lose this great deal. The owner tells you that they don’t accept credit cards, so you send a money wire for your summer vacation rental. The day comes that you take your vacation, and you arrive, but someone else is at your vacation rental (the tenant or owner of the property). Sometimes, the address that you are given leads you to a vacant lot or to a house that is falling down, and the renter of the vacation rental is long gone spending your money.

 Free Wi-Fi Scams

Everyone is always excited when they find out that they will have free Wi-Fi when they go on vacation as this can occur at many of the local diners and restaurants, shops, and most local places. You should know that free Wi-Fi doesn’t mean safe and secure. The free Wi-Fi scams can access your banking, email, and personal information with a fake free Wi-Fi internet network.

 Drop, Switch, and Bait Scams

This summer scam will involve a taxicab driver, shop or boutique worker who will take your cash payment for services or products, then they drop, switch, and bait you by saying you haven’t paid enough money as they replaced the money that you paid with a lower amount or they may give you less change than what you should get back. This summer scam can be avoid if you speak out loud the money that you are handing out.

 Delivery Take Away Scam

This summer scam occurs late at night. You arrive to enjoy your summer vacation at the destination. You are handed a restaurant flyer or one is pushed under your hotel door. The restaurant offers late night delivery food service, so you decide to call, because nothing else is open and you are tired and hungry. You place your order, then they tell you that they don’t accept cash and only credit cards, so you give your credit card details over the phone, then wait for your food to arrive. You wait and wait, but no food arrives, so you call the restaurant to see where your order is and no one answers. This is just enough time for the scammers to make plenty of purchases using your credit card. The delivery take away scam has occurred.