The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers of scammers impersonating popular travel booking sites, including booking.com.

Prospective travelers, believing they are working with booking.com, will be told to complete payment with gift cards. Once purchased, the scammers will say that the codes don’t work, and the traveler will have to spend even more money purchasing gift cards.

Alex from Texas tells BBB, “I wanted to change my reservation. In order to change my reservation, they told me I had to make a transaction in the same amount of that reservation. But in order to do that, I must go to the store and buy a ‘booking.com’ gift card. Well, of course, those don’t exist, so they told me that a Google Play gift card would work too. So I did so, and allegedly the codes didn’t work. So, I had to buy another set of gift cards and they promised it would work this time, but you’re getting the picture, it didn’t work…” 

The BBB advises to always question things that don’t seem right when booking travel, and to book through trusted companies. They write that often these scams happen when people find contact information through social media, where scammers can pose as other companies.

Cook Travel has been an industry leader for over 40 years, and has a A+ rating with the BBB. If something seems off when booking your travel, reach out to one of our experienced travel agents.

They can help you to know if your travel purchases are legitimate, or if the company is selling you a ticket that could jeopardize your travel, such as tickets purchased from other peoples’ miles, which airlines regularly void.

Furthermore, if you ever find yourself a victim of a scam, report it to the FTC.