Booking.com customers warned of 'reservation hijacking' after hack

Booking.com customers warned of 'reservation hijacking' after hack6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJoe TidyCyber correspondent, BBC World ServiceGetty ImagesA data breach at travel giant Booking.com is leading to a fresh wave of scams recently dubbed "reservation hijacks".Hackers stole customer data that experts say could lead to a surge in the scams as customers are tricked into sending criminals money.Some customers have contacted the BBC to say they have already started receiving suspicious messages.Booking.com says it has updated Pins for reservations and is sending out emails to affected customers warning them of the heightened risk.But the Dutch company is refusing to say how many people have been affected and in which regions.Almost seven billion people have used its service since 2010, according to the firm, making it one of the largest travel services in the world.In emails to customers seen by the BBC, the company said: "We recently noticed suspicious activity affected a number of reservations and we immediately took action to contain the issue."It goes on to say that criminals were able to access names, email addresses, phone numbers and details about past and present bookings.It said customers' financial information was not accessed from its systems.Experts warn this kind of data will be extremely valuable to fraudsters who are now racing to trick unwitting customers.Cyber-security firm Norton has dubbed the scams "reservation hijacks" because criminals have contacted Booking.com customers pretending to be hotels in order to trick victims into sending them money based on bogus reservation problems."Reservation hijack scams have been around for some time, but this new data makes them much more dangerous because it gives criminals precision as they can reference the real property, the real travel dates, the right contact details to make the scam feel like routine customer service," said...