How to spot a travel scam on social media – and avoid losing hundreds of pounds

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Typical scam accounts include: @easyJet_easy_ @CareBritish Seen Dolye CEO British Airways The villains’ aim is to persuade innocent travellers to contact them so that an elaborate series of lies can be told and hundreds of pounds extracted while the passenger fondly believes they are being “helped”. Someone calling himself “Martin from BA” wrote on Twitter that the luggage could be recovered – but only if the passenger transferred 22,458 Kenyan shillings to a person living in Nakuru, Kenya. @easyjet1Page said: “Apologies for the inconvenience caused kindly share a reachable phone number for assistance via DM.” If you send a number, you are likely swiftly to get a WhatsApp call from someone claiming to be from customer service. “We advise customers to only follow and engage with our sole official channel @easyJet, which is identifiable by the gold verification badge for official businesses, for the latest updates or to seek support and to be vigilant and to not engage with or click on any links from other accounts.” Listen to the fraudster trying to scam us for £760 on this podcast