Avoiding Travel Scams: A Guide for Older Adults
Planning a trip should feel exciting. And for most people, it does, until something goes wrong. Travel scams targeting older adults are more common than most people realize. A 2024 survey from McAfee found that more than 25% of Americans have been affected by travel scams.
Read: Elder Fraud: How to Spot and Avoid Common Scams
Discover: More personal finance articles
TK Kitts, chief investigator at Redbeard Intelligence and Investigations, has spent more than 15 years fighting fraud. In his experience, fewer than one in four victims over 50 ever report it, often because they’re embarrassed or fear that family members will question their judgment.
“Falling prey to a sophisticated scam is not the victim’s fault,” he said. “These operations use professional call centers, scripted responses and CRM software to track the hottest leads,” said Kitts.
For older adults specifically, they impersonate the banks, travel agents and institutions that spent decades earning your trust. Scammers prey on that familiarity, and now AI makes it even harder to spot.
The scams most likely to find you
According to the Federal Trade Commission, most travel scams follow a few recognizable patterns.
Fake vacation rentals. Scammers copy real listings or invent fake ones entirely. When you arrive, the property doesn’t exist or has already been booked by multiple people.
Clone booking sites. Fraudulent cruise and vacation package sites are built to look nearly identical to legitimate companies, right down to the customer service interactions.
Robocalls. It’s illegal for companies to call you about sales offers without your written permission. An unsolicited call about a vacation deal is almost certainly a scam.
Fake travel documents. Watch for imposter visa and international driving permit sites. In the U.S., only AAA and the American Automobile Touring Alliance are authorized to issue international driving permits.
Deepfake voice calls. The FBI has warned that scammers are increasingly using AI-generated voice cloning to impersonate trusted contacts and institutions. In travel, this can mean calls that sound exactly like airline representatives, hotel staff or booking agents.
What it actually looks like
Christine Durst, a fraud investigator and founder of AskGrammy.com, shared a client’s story. Her name has been changed to protect her privacy.
Ann, a woman in her 70s, was booking a trip for herself and two close friends. All three had recently lost their husbands. They saw it as a chance to travel together after a loss. Ann found a cruise site advertising senior-exclusive pricing. This was later discovered to be a near-clone of a legitimate cruise line, copied nearly word for word.
Ann filled out a form on the site and got a call within the hour. The caller asked about the group, what they were hoping to experience, and reflected it all back as a perfect match. In the moment, it seemed like exactly what they were looking for. To Ann, it felt exactly like booking through a travel agent had felt for years.
But the payment details required a small surcharge for credit cards, easily avoided with a bank transfer. He walked her through each step of the wire transfer process. She wired nearly $3,000. The scammer then used her card details to spend more than $5,000 in fraudulent purchases.
According to Durst, unexpected fees and payment changes are a common strategy used by scammers. “A professional start lays the groundwork, then minor hiccups lead to seemingly harmless payment changes from someone who’s just trying to help.”
One friend refused to contribute anything after the loss. Ann lost nearly $8,000 and a longtime friendship. When you’re booking for a group, one scam can affect everyone in the party, and the consequences can hit more than your wallet.
How to protect yourself
Kitts shared several strategies to keep in mind before you book.
Pay with a credit card. Legitimate travel companies don’t pressure you to abandon your credit card for a wire transfer or gift card. Wire transfers, gift cards, payment apps and cryptocurrency are chosen by scammers because the money can’t be recovered once it’s gone.
Don’t let urgency decide for you. If someone says a deal expires in the next hour, that may be a pressure tactic. Urgency is one of the most common warning signs of a scam.
Do your research before you commit. Search the company name alongside “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” Look them up at the Better Business Bureau and the American Society of Travel Agents. For rental properties, search the address. If it appears under different owner names, walk away.
Contact the company independently. Always use a phone number or website you find on your own, not one the seller gave you.
Check the URL carefully. Look for slight misspellings like “Booklng.com” instead of “Booking.com,” or unusual domains ending in “.xyz” instead of “.com.” Fake booking sites are built to look nearly identical to the real thing.
Talk to someone you trust. Before committing to an unfamiliar booking, run it by a family member, your bank or a travel advisor. Even better if you can speak to someone who has experience with the company you’re booking with.
Slow the interaction. AI can now produce messages, authentic-looking websites and convincing voice calls. If something feels right but too fast, that may be a signal to take a moment and verify before you decide.
You’ve earned the trip. A few extra minutes before you book is how you make sure you actually get to take it.
