Giant scam on Booking: tourists paid thousands of euros for a non-existent villa in Greece
A group of families who booked a luxury villa discovered the property does not exist and were left on the street with their children. Despite attempts to make contact, the response from the tourism giant's customer service was shocking.
A dream vacation in Greece turned into a nightmare for a group of families from Israel who found themselves helpless and without a roof over their heads. The families booked a luxury villa through "Booking" and paid a deposit of nearly 4,000 euros, but upon arriving at the destination, they were stunned to discover that the property simply does not exist.
Yael Gladstone, the representative of the defrauded families, described the moments when they realized they had fallen victim to a well-planned scam, despite having conducted prior correspondence with the "property owner".
"We made the entire booking through the app, but when we arrived we discovered it doesn't exist. We asked locals where the house was, as we couldn't find it. They laughed and said it doesn't exist; they probably already knew it was a method," she recalled with pain.
Only in hindsight did the families discover recent reviews on the site that warned of the scam.
The families, left on the street with their children in a foreign country, were forced to pay huge additional sums.
"We were forced to make another booking in Greece through 'Booking' to prove later that we needed a place to sleep. It is much more expensive and a mess; there was also a fear that we would be scammed again," Gladstone said about the helplessness that forced them to pull out their credit cards again.
The scandal gains further weight in light of the complete refusal of the "Booking" company to take responsibility. According to Gladstone, despite repeated call disconnections, the company refused to return the money, claiming outrageously: "They said that since the landlord does not answer them, they cannot verify the story and therefore are not responsible for the money stolen from us." It is astounding that, despite the complaints, the fake property continued to appear in the app, leaving other tourists exposed to a cruel scam.
This incident occurs against the backdrop of growing tension in Greece surrounding the security situation in the Mediterranean and incidents in which Israeli citizens encounter manifestations of hostile anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
