Be careful booking hotels - when we got a room for my grandma's funeral, we called the number listed on the Google business page, Turns out Expedia had hijacked the page and pretended to be the hotel's front desk when I called. Charged us a higher rate than we would've paid had we reached the front desk.
I reported the charge as fraud and my bank is getting me a refund, and I've spoken to the actual hotel to pay them the correct amount directly.
Also - the reservation was under Expedia, but the CC charge was Hotel Lodging (another Expedia-type company), and the room confirmation came from a third unrelated business. Sketchy practice.
It's not just hotels. Real Estate sites sometimes operate this way.
@yourautisticlife Damn! I just have to double check everything now. Remember when search engines were helpful?
@dramypsyd @yourautisticlife I remember Asking Jeeves
@dramypsyd @yourautisticlife Just today I was searching for an obscure option for a Microsoft program and what it did, and BOTH Google and Bing provided me 10+ pages of things related to the program that had ZERO mention of the option. I didn't even search for the program, just the option.
@dramypsyd @yourautisticlife DuckDuckGo isn't too bad
@dramypsyd How is that even legal?
Is that even legal?
@me I feel like it shouldn't be legal, but the thing is breaking the law like this typically results in fines, so the business just pays the fine and keeps breaking the law
@dramypsyd @me Otherwise known as the law is for working people and not for the elite.
@dramypsyd Yeah... I really wish things like fines were calculated proportional to the income of the person or entity being fined.
That'll never happen though.
@me The fine should be at least how much profit they made from the scam
@dramypsyd The old, "punishable by fine = legal for a price"
@me @dramypsyd everything is "legal" if it's not prosecuted
@dramypsyd wow. An attacker in the middle attack done by a market maker.
@dramypsyd sounds like a John Oliver subject.
@TransitBiker I will happily grant an interview for the attention
@dramypsyd Good tip! I'll also mention that many hotels/airlines/transit companies offer discount rates for those who have lost loved ones and are traveling. They typically called Bereavement Rates/Fares. They do often require proof though, a death certificate or statement from a hospital regarding an imminent death.
Hope this helps!
@dramypsyd can confirm. Last time I needed a hotel I had the same experience.
I caught on pretty quickly and was able to contact the hotel to book a room.
Scammers everywhere, these days.
@dramypsyd Another reason to switch to DuckDuckGo.
@dramypsyd Glad to have you as a soldier in the fight.
@dramypsyd this happened to me yesterday! Luckily I have a rule where I don’t book a room from a website without the name of the hotel in the domain name so I caught it, but I’m still not sure how I ended up on Expedia
@dramypsyd did you report this situation to Google? please do!
(yes, I work there. no, it's way outside of my bailiwick.)
@draNgNon To Google, to the Better Business Bureau, and to the state AG
@dramypsyd @Retreival9096 As another person mentioned, the same practice is rampant in food delivery. The delivery companies hijack restaurant links from search engines and Yelp, spoof the ordering process, and prepare the food in their own sweatshop “ghost kitchens”, and keep all the profits without the actual restaurant being involved.
@dramypsyd We don't book hotels very often since we're not travelers, but I'll keep this in mind the next time we need to book a hotel. Thanks for the warning!
@dramypsyd Expedia's totally automated (AI ??) system is high-jacking hotels, car rentals, tour operators, etc. It's scary stuff. The lesson is don't book with anyone who can't demonstrate that they are the operator.
@dramypsyd it's worse than just getting charged a higher rate. I know someone this happened to in Jamaica and when they got to the hotel they had no reservations at all. Expedia took their money, didn't make a reservation at the hotel. Luckily they ended up staying somewhere else that was better and I believe they got their money back as well .
Arriving in JA to find out you have nowhere to stay is not fun however.
@dangrsmind This happened to my friend when she was on vacation in Thailand! It's exactly why I wasn't using a third-party app to book
@dramypsyd SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME THREE WEEKS AGO !!!
@dramypsyd So that is why big business wants AI everywhere. They can use it to defraud the public. This spells the end of booking online.
@dramypsyd I recently booked a room online, never got a confirmation email but my company credit card got a charge. I wound up calling the hotel directly and they—after asking many security questions—verified the booking and gave me a confirmation number. But from now, I'm doing all bookings direct with the hotel.
@dramypsyd Thank you for this important tip. It's sad, but not surprising, that these various online services have rapidly degraded into racketeering.
This kind of thing is rampant in any search mediated transaction: Google and the credit cards and other big players know it is happening, but make a profit from the market that deceived you and so fight every attempt at responsibility or regulation.
@dramypsyd Utterly horrifying that people aren't in jail for this blatant wirefraud.
@dramypsyd I always try to avoid booking sites and book direct if I can.
I know they function as aggregators, but like ticket sites, they exploit it.
@dramypsyd this sort of man-in-the-middle attack is sadly not new and Google has done next to nothing to stop it.
From almost a decade ago, a talk on how this happens and has been done: https://youtu.be/5c6AADI7Pb4
@dramypsyd Well, that is a bit of a shady practice, but I don't think it's against the law for Expedia to use the Google page for marketing their connection with the hotel you thought you were calling. If the hotel has a contract with Expedia that allows them to do this, then it's not against the law. Just a bit shady is all. It's misleading the customer, but if that contract exists between them, then it's not illegal
@JustRosy They don’t have that relationship, I asked when I checked in. They had no idea the listing was hijacked.
This is both according to the front desk workers, and the owner of the entire hotel (he knows my parents so they asked directly)