I am the victim of a holiday booking scam, please help...
Simon Calder answers your questions on holiday scams, his favourite US city, human rights in Saudi Arabia and the cheapest way to leave Lyon
Q I was in dispute with Loveholidays over changes to the holiday I booked. While seeking written confirmation of a verbal agreement, I responded to an unrelated tweet from the company. I was contacted by someone claiming to be a Loveholidays representative. They asked me for a phone number and then contacted me on WhatsApp. I was told the best way to be compensated was to set up an account on WorldRemit. But after following the instructions from someone who said he was “Keith from customer service” I discovered I had been tricked into paying £100 to a mobile account. By the time it dawned on me it was a scam it was too late – the money had gone. Is there any redress?
Tracey M
A What an extremely upsetting experience. I have sought to warn travellers of the large number of scams being perpetrated by criminals masquerading as travel firms on X (formerly Twitter). They typically target customers of companies that are seeing a large number of complaints; last summer they preyed on easyJet passengers after at least 180,000 journeys were cancelled. I was one of them, and so I was in a position to investigate how the crooks work.
The standard scam begins when you post a message to the real company. Often a scammer with a very similar handle (eg Loveholidaays) will respond. They will ask for your phone number. If you send it, someone with a Kenyan (or sometimes Tanzanian) mobile number will call and pretend that customer service has been outsourced to East Africa. They will promptly offer a refund and say that to arrange it they need you to download a legitimate payment app, WorldRemit. To dupe you into handing over money, they pretend that they are asking you to tap in a code: something like KES19895. In fact you are unwittingly about to send that amount in Kenyan shillings, worth roughly £100, to the villain’s account.
Such a transaction is like handing over a bag of your hard-earned money to a complete stranger. I am afraid there is no way to get the cash back. For as long as it remains possible for scammers to operate with impunity on social media, all that can be done is to warn others about the risk – and, as I do repeatedly, report the imposters to try to get them shut down.
Q Which is your favourite US city?
Rebecca H
A An excellent and most welcome question that I have previously not considered – and one I have contemplated for a long time. I began by eliminating some of the obvious candidates, starting with New York City. I feel it does not have enough texture compared with other locations. I always enjoy Boston and Washington DC, but they are not typically American: Boston is the most European-feeling place in the US while the capital is a planned, low-rise city. New Orleans, too, is a wonderful city but has much more in common with France and Cuba than with the rest of the nation.
Chicago is arguably the most American of cities, and I love the way the “L” (elevated railway) threads around the downtown area, giving thrilling views of the skyscrapers. The Art Institute of Chicago is my favourite American museum. And you can eat and drink your way around the world more easily than in any other US city.
On the west coast, I would choose Los Angeles every time over San Francisco: it may lack the good looks, but the metropolitan mosaic and one-off treats such as the Hollywood sign and Santa Monica pier make me happy to be there. I shall return as soon as the amazing new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens, hopefully next year – funded by Star Wars creator, George Lucas.
Two hours down the coast, though, San Diego is even more appealing: a vibrant downtown, great beaches and the dazzling early 20th-century Balboa Park, plus Mexico is a short ride away by “trolley” (the local name for a tram).
At the other end of the Pacific coast, Seattle is the fourth contender: beautifully located on Puget Sound with a patchwork of distinctive neighbourhoods. It is also the birthplace and last resting place of Jimi Hendrix, the greatest-ever guitarist.
Were you to twist my arm and insist I choose only one, Chicago it is.
Q I see you publicised your latest travel podcast, covering travel to Saudi Arabia, with a post on Twitter/X that began by mentioning their human rights record. May I ask why? Just curious.
“Rodg the Codge”
A Many of the destinations that I write about have questionable human rights records. For example, Human Rights Watch describes the Turkish government as “abusive”. It highlights “Chinese government crimes against humanity in Xinjiang”. The global organisation says under prime minister Narendra Modi, “India’s democracy has slid toward autocracy, with authorities targeting minorities, tightening repression and dismantling independent institutions”. And there are many other examples of nations with lamentable human rights records.
Saudi Arabia is in an unusual position. The kingdom is working towards a post-oil era and talks of creating a million jobs in tourism as it diversifies its economy. As it is the biggest country in Arabia, 10 times the size of Britain, tourism is seen as a huge opportunity. The aim is to increase international and domestic visits to 100 million a year by 2030, about three times more than today. Billions of dollars are being ploughed into new infrastructure, from the Neom project on the Red Sea coast to new tourism facilities in the capital, Riyadh.
For adventurous travellers, such as Sanna Daw, the woman I talked to in the podcast, the kingdom is ripe for exploration. Yet at the same time, discrimination against women is enshrined in law: they must have a male guardian’s permission to marry and are obliged to obey their husbands. Migrant workers are “abused and exploited” according to Amnesty International. The UK Foreign Office says: “Same-sex relations are illegal.” And, in 2019, the UN high commissioner for Human Rights concluded that the Saudi state was responsible for the “premeditated extrajudicial execution” of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Given the breadth of human rights abuses, I believe many travellers will choose to avoid Saudi Arabia. The counter view is that tourism is a force for good in opening up the world and improving people-to-people contacts. That was certainly the view of Sanna Daw, the recently returned traveller who I met for the podcast. “I’m not visiting the government, I’m visiting the people,” she told me. “There’s nothing better than going and talking.” Her next trip: Iraq.
Q Over the first weekend in April I am part of a group of four who are meeting an old schoolfriend who is now living and working in Lyon. The fares going out on Friday 5 April are fine, but coming back on Sunday 7 April they are extremely high. The cheapest trip I can see is £356 one way on British Airways to London Heathrow. Can you help?
Charlotte E
A You have encountered the ferocious spending power of families returning from ski trips during the school holidays. On the key London Gatwick-Lyon link, serving many resorts in the western part of the French Alps, easyJet is selling outbound seats on 5 April for £40 – but coming back on the evening you want to travel, the price is an astonishing £607 one way. By comparison, that £356 on BA looks a relative bargain, though still way more than you or I would like to pay. Two days later it falls to just £49, but I presume there are reasons you cannot stay any longer.
The only solution: get away from the mountains. The most straightforward way to do that is to use the marvellous high-speed trains from Lyon. Eurostar is quoting a fare of £193 for a good, fast connection at 5pm via Lille (no need to change trains in Paris, which involves a complicated transfer). In the circumstances that would be my choice. The journey takes under five hours, and you reach London St Pancras International just before 9pm, local time. It’s city-centre to city-centre. And there are no tedious baggage or liquid rules, so you can bring back plenty of good wine to help alleviate the financial pain.
If, though, price is crucial, then I shall dispatch you in the opposite direction: by Ouigo budget high-speed train from Lyon airport to Aix-en-Provence TGV. The 6.33pm from Lyon, price £22, will get you to this rather forlorn station at 7.57pm. Regular buses run from here in about 15 minutes to Marseille airport, from where you can take the 10.05pm to Gatwick, arriving on the dot of 11pm (I hope) for £66.
Taking into account the transfers to/from the airports, the fare totals about £120: 40 per cent less than the train ticket, in return for about four times more hassle.
Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
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