There has been a Phishing scam going round the tourism industry recently where somebody has claimed to have been in a party staying at a property and they took some photos which they would like to use in a magazine article. They ask if you ‘Would you like to look at them?’ and include a link for you to click. Perhaps too tempting with the chance of publicity. Once clicked they can then attempt to hack in to your personal email account. This of course is just one of many scams.
We do know of situations where hackers have got into holiday house owners own email accounts, re directed emails to themselves, pretended to be the owners and then taken thousands of pounds off guests who are completely unaware they have been dealing with a hacker. As the emails have been re-directed to the hackers, the owner has had no idea that this has been going on. The money is paid over to a fraudulent bank account and the money is gone with the guest thinking they have made a booking and the owner having no idea somebody is expecting to arrive on their door step.
Hacking is sadly a highly organised industry so you need to do as much as you can to protect yourself.
Advice from Action Fraud
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Passwords are your first defence against hackers. Harden up any passwords you have on any holiday cottage sites, e-commerce sites, banks etc. For a secure password you should use three words and include a symbol, upper/lower case letters and numbers. Remember the more complex and unique to you your password is, the harder it is to crack. Family and pets names and sequences of numbers are easy pickings for hackers.
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Two Factor Authentication. Enabling 2FA is one of the best ways to make sure your accounts don’t get hacked. 2FA is a feature that asks for more than just your password. It requires both “something you know” (like a password) and “something you have” (like your phone). Most email suppliers provide this feature and have step by step instructions on how to install it.
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If the unfortunate does happen and your email does get hacked, change your password immediately, run an anti-virus scan on your device and report it to Action Fraud
It is very hard to completely hide your email address from people so do follow all the advice given: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/how-to-protect-your-email-account-from-hackers-aug16
Action Fraud is a useful reference point and articles https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you
Gov.uk also provide useful information
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cyber-security-guidance-for-business
Keep an eye on your owners area on the sites you work with. Check the names on enquirers whenever you can. Make telephone contact so that you can build a relationship with enquirers so you and they know who they are dealing with, particularly when it comes to payment.
Stay safe!
This advice is from our friends at GroupAccommodation.