How to Spot and Avoid AI-Driven Travel Scams

Mark Kalinowski’s father was caught by a familiar travel scam. “Someone phoned and said, ‘Good news — you’ve won a paid trip to Florida. Just cover a $200 processing fee,’” Kalinowski recalled from his home in Calgary. “He handed over his credit card without thinking twice.”

That loss happened more than a decade ago, and his father shrugged it off. Since then, though, travel scams have multiplied: fake websites, phishing emails, fraudulent vacation listings, and hijacked loyalty accounts now create many more opportunities for victims.

Industry groups, including the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies and Travel Advisors, have warned that scams and fraud attempts have surged in recent years as artificial intelligence tools expand opportunities for criminals. Online travel platforms have reported dramatic increases — Booking.com said in 2024 that AI contributed to a 500–900% rise in travel scams over the previous 18 months. Flight Centre Canada also reported working with search engines to remove hundreds of impostor listings that were surfacing in queries.

Too-good-to-be-true travel deals often signal fraud

Kalinowski, who teaches personal finance at the Credit Counselling Society, cautions travellers to be skeptical of ads that redirect to third-party pages purporting to represent a hotel, airline, or cruise line. “Scams are everywhere and can trap people from all walks of life. Falling for one isn’t about intelligence,” he said.

Featured travel credit cards

Many fraudulent booking sites lift photos and descriptions from legitimate hotel, airline, and cruise pages to look authentic. “If you book with one of these impostor sites, there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get the room or service you paid for — you might only discover the problem when you arrive, and by then the money could be gone,” Toronto-Dominion Bank warned in guidance about travel scams.

Vacation rental platforms are also targeted: fake listings may make it seem like you booked a legitimate Airbnb or VRBO, but when you arrive there is nothing available. Other common warning signs include offers that appear ridiculously cheap, high-pressure tactics to force a quick booking, and requests to pay by unconventional means like wire transfers, gift cards, or cryptocurrency instead of secure credit-card payments.

Kalinowski remembers a phoney Southwest Airlines ad that combined an implausible free-ticket offer with urgency: it promised free flights to the first 500 people who booked on a certain website. “When was the last time you saw a genuinely free flight?” he asked. Offers like that should immediately raise suspicion.

How to protect yourself when booking travel online

To reduce your risk, go directly to the airline, hotel, or cruise line’s official website by typing the address into your browser or confirming the URL before you click. Booking through reputable travel agencies can also provide added protection. After you book, contact the provider directly to confirm the reservation and make sure it’s legitimate.

When evaluating vacation rentals, read all reviews and use tools such as Google Street View to verify the address. A reverse image search can expose photos that have been copied from other websites. These simple checks can reveal red flags before you hand over money.

Be especially cautious about phishing attempts that try to steal loyalty-account credentials. Scammers increasingly use automated, AI-enhanced messages to send convincing-looking emails or texts that ask for login details. Phishing messages typically create a sense of urgency, request financial or account information, and may contain spelling or grammar errors.

If you do fall victim to a travel scam, report it to local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Notify the platform that hosted the fraudulent ad — for example, a search engine or a short-term rental site — so they can take it down. Contact your bank or credit card company immediately to try to freeze the payment and secure any compromised accounts, watch for suspicious transactions, and alert credit bureaus to any potential changes to your credit report.