Scams that target travelers: a pre-trip checklist for booking, arriving, and getting home safe
Booking a trip puts your money and details in motion — fake rental listings, "free vacation" prizes, look-alike booking sites, and third-party Global Entry pages all wait for travelers. Here is a plain checklist to book and travel without getting scammed.
A trip is a sequence of payments to people you’ve never met, often booked in a hurry and a good mood — which is exactly the state scammers hope to catch you in. The good news is that travel scams reuse a handful of familiar moves, and a short pre-trip checklist defuses almost all of them. This guide pulls the travel-specific ones together; each links to a deeper breakdown.
Before you book
The “free” vacation you never entered for. A call, email, or text says you’ve won a trip. The FTC’s warning is blunt: you may be told “you’ve won a vacation even though you never entered a contest,” then asked to “pay fees and taxes first” — and “a legitimate company won’t ask you to pay for a free prize.” Vagueness is the tell: a “five-star resort” or “luxury cruise” with no named hotel or cruise line. This is the travel face of the fake-prize and lottery scam — and the rule is Never Pay to Get Paid.
Look-alike booking sites and too-good deals. The FTC advises looking “up the name of the travel site, plus words like ‘scam,’ ‘review,’ or ‘complaint’ before you take their deal,” and paying by credit card for the protection. A price well below everyone else’s, plus pressure “to make a quick decision,” is bait — that’s Too Good = Gone. For storefronts that take money and deliver nothing, see how to spot a fake online store.
Rental listings. Vacation and short-term rentals are a scam staple: hijacked photos, a too-low price, and a push to pay off-platform. The FTC suggests searching “the address plus the property owner or rental company name — if other ads come up for the same address, it’s probably a scam.” We cover this in depth in vacation rental scams and rental deposit scams.
The trap unique to travelers: third-party government-program sites
This one catches even careful people. When you search for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, NEXUS, SENTRI, or ESTA, the top results often include slick third-party sites that charge a markup to “help” — and some are outright fakes. CBP warns of “an increasing number of third-party sites attempting to mimic official U.S. government websites” for the Trusted Traveler Programs, sites that “can be quite expensive” and “are not necessary.” Worse, TSA “will not issue a reimbursement to applicants who attempt to renew TSA PreCheck through a fraudulent website.”
The fix is Go Direct: apply only on the official government sites — ttp.dhs.gov for Global Entry and NEXUS/SENTRI, tsa.gov for PreCheck, and esta.cbp.dhs.gov for visa-waiver travel (ESTA). Never let a search ad route your application.
While you’re traveling
- Need an airline, hotel, or bank’s help line? Don’t grab the number from a search ad or social reply — that’s its own scam. Get it from your booking confirmation, the official app, or the back of your card. See the fake customer-support number scam.
- An unexpected “fraud alert” text about your card? Don’t call the number in it; call the bank on your card. See the bank fraud-alert text.
- Watch the payment method everywhere. Across all of it, the FTC’s line holds: if the “only way to pay” is wire transfer, gift card, payment app, or crypto, “that’s a scam, every time.” Card payments give you recourse; those don’t.
The pre-trip checklist
- Apply for trusted-traveler programs only on official government sites.
- Book on sites you reached yourself; search the name plus “scam” first.
- Pay by credit card; refuse wire/gift-card/app/crypto-only demands.
- Treat any “free” trip that needs upfront fees as a scam.
- Save your bank and airline’s real numbers before you go.
Do these with a clear head before the trip, and the The Pause on Money takes care of the rest in the moment. For more, see the named defense moves or test your eye on the 60-second quiz.
- You "won" a vacation you never entered for — but must pay fees or taxes first to claim it.
- A rental or package is priced below the rest, with vague details and a demand to pay by wire, gift card, payment app, or crypto.
- A search for "Global Entry," "TSA PreCheck," or "ESTA" leads to a slick site that charges extra to "help" with a government application.
- Apply for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or ESTA only on the official government sites (ttp.dhs.gov, tsa.gov, esta.cbp.dhs.gov) — never a third-party "helper."
- Book through the airline, hotel, or a known platform reached by typing the address yourself; search the seller's name plus "scam" or "complaint" first.
- Pay by credit card for the protections. Any "only way to pay is wire / gift card / payment app / crypto" is a scam, every time.
- A real prize is free. If a "free" trip needs fees or taxes up front, or details are vague, walk away.
Travel is a near-perfect target for scammers because the whole mood is wrong for caution — you’re excited, often booking late, chasing a deal, and handing money to strangers in places you’ve never been. I’ve learned to do the boring checks before the fun starts, when I still have a clear head: book on sites I reached myself, pay by card, and never let a search result decide where my government application or my deposit goes. None of it dampens the trip. It just means the only surprises waiting for me are the good kind.
Sources
Frequently asked
I got an email saying I won a free vacation. Could it be real?
Almost certainly not, especially if you never entered. The FTC warns you may get messages "saying you've won a vacation even though you never entered a contest," and that scammers "tell you that you have to pay fees and taxes first." Their rule is simple: "a legitimate company won't ask you to pay for a free prize." Another tell is vagueness — the FTC notes scammers won't give "specific details like the hotel address or cruise company's name." If they can't, walk away.
Do I need a service to help me get Global Entry or renew TSA PreCheck?
No. CBP warns of "an increasing number of third-party sites attempting to mimic official U.S. government websites" for Trusted Traveler Programs like Global Entry, NEXUS, and SENTRI — sites that "can be quite expensive" and "are not necessary." Apply only at the official sites (ttp.dhs.gov for Global Entry, tsa.gov for PreCheck). Note too that TSA "will not issue a reimbursement to applicants who attempt to renew TSA PreCheck through a fraudulent website."
How do I pay for a trip safely?
Use a credit card. The FTC notes that "paying by credit card gives you more protection than paying with a debit card, cash, or check," and you may be able to dispute charges if you don't get what you paid for. Treat any insistence on wire transfer, gift cards, a payment app, or cryptocurrency as a stop sign — once that money is sent, it's almost impossible to recover.