Dark Web Travel Agencies Take Flight

As the summer travel season heats up, more cybercriminals are posing as online travel agents, advertising high-end vacation packages at sharp discounts.

By charging unsuspecting customers a fraction of the cost for lavish trips, phony booking sites cover the full price with stolen credit and loyalty cards to rake in a tidy profit. Sales margins can reach well over 1,000%, cybersecurity firms say.

Dark web travel agencies, as they are known, run ads on the open web with links to fake travel websites they have created. When a travel package is purchased, operators pocket the customer’s payment and quickly book and prepay for trips with the stolen card information on genuine online reservation apps, using customers’ real names, addresses and other details. For the vacationer, who typically is unaware of the scam, checking in for an illegally booked flight or hotel room requires only a driver’s license or other form of identification.