Sun, sea ... and travel fraud?

Duke Franklin was tired of winter and was glad that spring had finally arrived. He had two weeks of vacation and was anxious to start planning a trip. His bank account wasn’t busting with cash so he used Google to search for a good deal. He found a couple of websites that offered vacation programs that appeared to be relatively inexpensive. After he selected the travel plan that fit his budget, the site instructed him to click on a link to book the trip with his credit card.

A week passed, and Duke was puzzled why he hadn’t received any confirmation from the airlines and hotel. He went online to check his credit card transactions and noticed that not only did no charges show up for the website that “booked” his trip, his account balance was depleted. Duke realized he was a victim of an identity theft travel scam. To prevent any further financial damage, he called his credit card company to report the fraud, and they immediately closed his account and issued him a new credit card.