Watch Out for These Travel Scams This Summer

A couple looks worried while walking through an airport.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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.

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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.

As the "Ask Kim" columnist for Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Lankford receives hundreds of personal finance questions from readers every month. She is the author of Rescue Your Financial Life (McGraw-Hill, 2003), The Insurance Maze: How You Can Save Money on Insurance -- and Still Get the Coverage You Need (Kaplan, 2006), Kiplinger's Ask Kim for Money Smart Solutions (Kaplan, 2007) and The Kiplinger/BBB Personal Finance Guide for Military Families. She is frequently featured as a financial expert on television and radio, including NBC's Today Show, CNN, CNBC and National Public Radio.