Summer scams: what to watch out for

First at Five looks at ways to avoid getting scammed this summer.

Whether it’s some fun in the sun, a road trip or a flight somewhere, many of us have plans for a summer getaway and book those plans online.

And with this week marking the first official week of summer, cybersecurity experts - and people who have been victimized - are sharing tips on how people can protect themselves from scams spoiling their summer experiences.

Luke Wells from St. John’s, N.L., bought tickets to a professional soccer match during a recent trip to England.

However, he was surprised and disappointed when he was denied entry at the door because the tickets had already been scanned.

“[It had been a] pretty normal process, through StubHub International, which I figured would be alright,” Wells said. “Especially with StubHub too, I had been using them to buy and sell tickets for years. I was told at the gate, when I was being denied, that they see it a fair bit.”

Tony Anscombe is a cybersecurity expert based in Calgary, who said people also can get swindled when trying to book summer accommodations.

“If you’re looking for a cottage rental - is it real? Is it fake?” he said.

Anscombe said one significant red flag to watch out for is if the seller is asking for the payment urgently.

“Look out for that urgency, and they’ll look for a payment through a non-normal way,” Anscombe said. “Not a credit card payment, or such. They’re looking for gift cards or cryptocurrency transfers.”

Anscombe added that from flight tickets to concert tickets, it’s safest to buy directly from the airline or the venue when possible.

“There are lots of other red flags that you should look for,” he said. “The payment method, and the urgency, and the fact that they’ve got something that nobody else apparently has access to.”

Destination Cape Breton CEO, Terry Smith, said though he hasn’t heard of too many people visiting the island and falling victim to scams, they did have one bad experience fairly recently.

“A couple of years ago, we were running a social media contest and we had a fake account that [someone had] set up,” Smith said. “We reported it through Facebook, and unfortunately their customer service ‘bot’, or whatever, didn’t accept our complaint.”

Wells said his advice to others so they don’t end up falling victim like he did would be to buy from primary sources when possible.

“This [soccer] match happened to be sold out, so I didn’t really have that option,” he said. “But if you do go through this kind of thing, reach out to them right away because they were pretty good. I had my money back within a couple of days.”

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