A Russian hacker infiltrated the booking account of a hotel in Lisbon, the Marino Boutique Hotel, and was able to generate almost half a million euros in fake bookings, reports CNN Portugal. The hacker contacted hundreds of clients, that fell for the scam, between June 12 and 16.
When he hacked the Booking account, he changed the room prices to 40 euros, rather than the usual 200 to 300 euros. Quickly, over 1000 bookings were made in four days.
The hacker then sent a payment link to clients, diverting funds to his account. The bookings were obviously fake and the tourists were scammed out of their money.
The hotel did not have access to their Booking account for over four days but believed the website was merely down.
However, with the hacker gathering over half a million euros in fake reviews, it is clear that this will negatively impact the establishment. The hotel received hundreds of complaints over the past month, around 50 via telephone a day.
However, the loss for the hotel and clients is still being calculated. The hotel is considering suing Booking as they argue the platform was too slow in blocking the hacker from their account.