Summer is prime time for travel-related scams.
By now, you may have heard about toll-road payment scams: You receive a text or e-mail that seems to be from a legitimate toll-payment company, such as E-ZPass in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, FasTrak in California or I-PASS in Illinois.
The sender's number may be spoofed, and the text will include a link that asks you to pay the toll immediately or verify your information. It may seem like an obvious scam, unless you recently traveled on the road mentioned in the text.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
If you fall for one of these schemes and provide your payment information, the scammers may use your credit or debit card number to make purchases.
Never click on a link in a text or e-mail claiming to be from a toll-road operator. Instead, go to the operator's website and log in to your account, or call the company to verify whether you owe money.
Vacation rental scams
Also beware of other travel scams. On vacation-rental websites, keep an eye out for fake listings, in which a fraudster advertises a rental that doesn’t exist and collects money before you arrive.
Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), recommends looking up the address on Google Maps and using the Street View feature to see whether the property matches what’s shown in the listing.
Airline scams
If you need to call an airline's customer service department, make sure you have the right number.
After a storm disrupted travel last summer, some people whose flights were canceled or delayed looked up their airlines' phone numbers with a web search, which turned up fake numbers on the results page.
When customers called the fraudulent numbers, scammers told them they could get on another flight for, say, $17 more and asked them to provide their payment information, Murray says.
People didn't realize they were giving their credit card numbers to thieves.
Rather than call a number that shows up at the top of online search results, get the number through the airline's app or go directly to its website, Murray says.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
Related content
-
3 Ways to Stretch the 2026 Social Security COLA For Your BudgetThree steps retirees can take to stretch the Social Security COLA to fit their budgets.
-
How to Keep Your Charitable Giving Momentum Going All YearInstead of treating charity like a year-end rush for tax breaks, consider using smart tools like DAFs and recurring grants for maximum impact all the year.
-
Uber Takes Aim at the Bottom Lines of Billboard LawyersUber has filed lawsuits and proposed a ballot initiative, in California, to curb settlements it claims are falsely inflated by some personal injury lawyers.
-
Uber Takes Aim at the Bottom Lines of Billboard Personal Injury Lawyers
Uber has filed lawsuits and proposed a ballot initiative, in California, to curb settlements it claims are falsely inflated by some personal injury lawyers.
-
11 Cities With the Cheapest Groceries in the USIf you live in one of these 11 cities, you're paying less than the rest of the country to keep your fridge stocked.
-
Giving Tuesday 2025: 'Every Small Act Makes a Major Difference'GivingTuesday encourages generosity in any form, from donating to charity to helping your neighbors.
-
How to Position Your Portfolio for Lower Interest RatesThe Federal Reserve is far from done with its rate-cutting regime. This is how investors can prepare.
-
Moves to Manage the Soaring Costs of Owning a CarIt's costing more and more to keep a car on the road, but you can drive some costs down. Here's how to get a better deal on insurance premiums, repairs and gas
-
My First $1 Million: Oil Industry Engineering Manager, 67, Chapel Hill, N.C.Ever wonder how someone who's made a million dollars or more did it? Kiplinger's My First $1 Million series uncovers the answers.
-
I'm a Financial Literacy Expert: Bubble-Wrapping Our Kids Robbed Them of Resilience. Now What?By raising them to think they're amazing no matter what and lifting them over obstacles, we left them unprepared to work in the real world.
-
I'm a Financial Planner: If You're a High Earner, You Need an 18-Month Safety NetNo job seems to be safe in this age of AI. If you make a larger-than-usual salary, then you need to have a larger-than-usual emergency fund. Here's why.
