Fake advertisement of luxurious villa on "Booking.com"

An Ontario man paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on the popular booking.com website, only to find out later that the ad was fake. The man was looking for a place in Costa Rica on Booking.com when he saw a luxury villa for rent. At the end of January, he decided to stay in Costa Rica for three weeks.

The villa he saw had good reviews and everything seemed to be right. When the man called to book the villa, the owner of the villa said he preferred to keep in touch via WhatsApp. Therefore, they continued their communication through WhatsApp and the payment for the villa was made.




He paid $7,736 to book the villa, but after doing so, he couldn't get any more information about the villa and the ad was changed. The pictures related to the villa on the site were changed and he realized that the ad was fake.

Experts recommend that when renting a place to spend a vacation, make sure to make all calls and communications and payments through the site platform, whether on Booking.com or Airbnb.

This man contacted the Booking.com platform and explained the story to them, and the platform reimbursed him after necessary investigations.

The site said: "Ensuring the safety and reliability of the platform is our top priority. After reviewing this person's case, we noticed suspicious activity related to their booking and worked closely with the person in question to issue a full refund. Online fraud is a problem in many sectors and is not unique to Booking.com. We are committed to helping our customers and our customer service team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

news source