1 00:00:00,239 --> 00:00:03,166 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Stacey Hyde and I'm back for another episode 2 00:00:03,166 --> 00:00:07,902 of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less, and today 3 00:00:08,082 --> 00:00:12,310 I'd like to talk about how we get ready for summer vacation 4 00:00:12,529 --> 00:00:17,108 and how to avoid scams deals that are too good to be true. 5 00:00:17,108 --> 00:00:23,469 So the key thing to keep in mind is deals that are too good 6 00:00:23,489 --> 00:00:26,574 to be true usually are Pay attention. 7 00:00:26,574 --> 00:00:30,733 You may get an email that looks like it's from Southwest or 8 00:00:30,774 --> 00:00:34,646 Expedia or some other large travel site telling you to book 9 00:00:34,706 --> 00:00:38,918 now, book immediately, and you click a link and it takes you to 10 00:00:38,918 --> 00:00:41,405 a site and it looks similar. 11 00:00:41,405 --> 00:00:44,671 But protect yourself. 12 00:00:44,671 --> 00:00:49,828 Go to the regular site and type it into your browser and see if 13 00:00:49,828 --> 00:00:51,335 the same deals available there. 14 00:00:51,335 --> 00:00:52,780 That's a quick way to check. 15 00:00:53,523 --> 00:00:58,676 The other thing to keep in mind is that and where we're seeing 16 00:00:58,716 --> 00:01:04,487 this is fake scams for Airbnb or VRBO, and they've gotten pretty 17 00:01:04,487 --> 00:01:08,381 good like literally, they'll copy the pictures from a real 18 00:01:08,460 --> 00:01:12,828 site, create a fake site, get you to enter your payment 19 00:01:12,890 --> 00:01:17,983 information and then you think you've booked because you it 20 00:01:18,043 --> 00:01:23,271 looked like Airbnb or VRBO, and then all of a sudden, you're not 21 00:01:23,271 --> 00:01:26,896 getting the confirmation you expected or it's not showing up 22 00:01:27,019 --> 00:01:28,322 in your Airbnb app. 23 00:01:28,322 --> 00:01:32,632 So really, before you click on any of these, especially ones 24 00:01:32,712 --> 00:01:36,885 that you see posted on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. 25 00:01:36,885 --> 00:01:42,132 Go to the Airbnb or the VRBO site and search it. 26 00:01:42,132 --> 00:01:48,209 You can also take that image and do a reverse image search in 27 00:01:48,209 --> 00:01:53,903 Google to see if you really are on the right site and if those 28 00:01:54,024 --> 00:01:57,543 rates really are the right rates and if you really are on the 29 00:01:57,603 --> 00:01:58,085 right site. 30 00:01:58,085 --> 00:02:01,808 So you really have to take that extra bit of time. 31 00:02:01,808 --> 00:02:05,769 The other red flags that you can watch out for is are they 32 00:02:05,909 --> 00:02:08,586 asking you to pay with a gift card or something like that? 33 00:02:08,586 --> 00:02:11,581 They certainly don't want you to pay for a credit card with a 34 00:02:11,602 --> 00:02:14,747 credit card, because as soon as you find fraud, you call your 35 00:02:14,788 --> 00:02:19,965 credit card company and you dispute it and let them know 36 00:02:20,004 --> 00:02:20,545 what happened. 37 00:02:20,545 --> 00:02:24,834 They'll send you a new card and refund your money. 38 00:02:24,834 --> 00:02:27,441 What happened? 39 00:02:27,441 --> 00:02:28,465 They'll send you a new card and refund your money. 40 00:02:28,465 --> 00:02:30,132 So anytime they're asking you to pay with something other than 41 00:02:30,132 --> 00:02:31,998 your credit card, that's definitely a red flag, because 42 00:02:32,118 --> 00:02:35,786 the reputable sites expect you to pay with the credit card. 43 00:02:35,786 --> 00:02:43,925 So take an extra 60 seconds and a gut check and just make sure 44 00:02:44,066 --> 00:02:47,893 that it is what it is that you're booking, because you 45 00:02:48,014 --> 00:02:49,983 don't want to have something happen. 46 00:02:50,544 --> 00:02:54,772 The FTC, which tracks this kind of fraud, says these types of 47 00:02:54,900 --> 00:02:58,824 scams really peak between now and July. 48 00:02:58,824 --> 00:03:00,824 So protect yourself. 49 00:03:00,824 --> 00:03:02,526 Pay attention, tell those you love. 50 00:03:02,526 --> 00:03:03,987 Protect yourself, pay attention , tell those you love, 51 00:03:04,008 --> 00:03:07,311 especially if you are around older people. 52 00:03:07,311 --> 00:03:10,274 A lot of times they're not as adept at picking up that. 53 00:03:10,274 --> 00:03:13,377 Hey, that doesn't look like Airbnb or something like that. 54 00:03:13,377 --> 00:03:22,728 Help them out, offer to check it out if they find something 55 00:03:22,747 --> 00:03:24,235 they think they like and they're going to book it, because you 56 00:03:24,254 --> 00:03:25,038 can book some wonderful vacations. 57 00:03:25,038 --> 00:03:26,763 We've used VRBO, even internationally, and had 58 00:03:26,842 --> 00:03:27,825 wonderful success. 59 00:03:27,825 --> 00:03:31,020 But you definitely need to make sure that you're on the right 60 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,568 site and you're definitely using a credit card. 61 00:03:34,568 --> 00:03:38,522 I would not even use a debit card to book vacations like this 62 00:03:38,522 --> 00:03:43,673 , so I hope you are looking forward to a wonderful vacation 63 00:03:43,712 --> 00:03:44,193 this summer. 64 00:03:44,193 --> 00:03:47,953 This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 65 00:03:47,953 --> 00:03:48,695 Minutes or Less.