Doc Holiday: How can we prevent identity theft while traveling?

How can you protect yourself from scammers while travelling or booking a holiday online? Doc Holiday has the answer.

Escape's Doc Holiday, Dilvin Yasa, answers your travel-related questions.

My husband and I were victims of a data breach and ID theft and now we’re fearful of online transactions. What’s the safest way to book and pay for travel?

I’m so sorry to hear what you’ve been through. I wish I could tell you this could all be a simple matter of popping into your nearest branch of whichever travel organisation and paying for everything in cash. In some cases this is possible (if you book holiday packages through Flight Centre, for example, you have the option of paying the total in cash in any of their bricks-and-mortar stores). However, in this digitised world the focus is on online bookings and payments, with the expectation that you will willingly hand over a good chunk of personal information you hope will be securely stored.

Assuming you already have security software installed on your tech, where possible book travel with a known and respected entity such as expedia.com.au and booking.com, but pay close attention to the web address you’re using. Since scammers mimic these booking platforms and change their web address or phone number by a single digit or letter, always open a new tab in your browser and type in the URL rather than clicking on a link in an email or an ad on social media. Legitimate, secure websites will have a padlock symbol in the top left corner of the address bar, or it will begin with http://.

If you ever receive an email, text, a WhatsApp message or phone call purporting to be from an airline or booking agent demanding additional details for payment, take their details and hang up immediately. Look up the main customer line for the airline or agent, call them and verify it was actually them before giving further details or payments. In cases where two-factor authentication is available, use it and be sure to create a strong password you haven’t used anywhere else.

Although there are cases where you can reserve hotel rooms and not pay for anything until you get to the property, they will still need to put your credit card details on file. Credit cards tend to offer fraud protection, allowing you to dispute the charge and get your money back, while making bookings online using a virtual Wise money card can have benefits too, such as the ability to automatically freeze your card in the app if you suspect you’re being scammed, or want to stop a payment.

You mentioned your unwillingness to provide passport details to properties while travelling Europe and while I can understand your reluctance, it’s a legal requirement in many countries and they’ll either ask for the details of the document weeks before you check in, or they’ll ask to copy it when you arrive at the property.

You could try explaining that as you’ve been the victim of identity theft, you are not comfortable with this arrangement, but as many countries have laws that mandate hotels and Airbnb hosts register guests’ identities with local authorities for both security and taxation purposes, it’s likely they’ll only cancel your booking.

The best you could negotiate in cases like these is to hold off on providing them with your details beforehand and only show them in person when you check in. I know it isn’t ideal considering all you’ve been through, but keeping holidays largely domestic is the only real way of getting out of this exchange.

We’re two families (four adults and five kids) keen to charter a bareboat around Croatia’s islands next year. Google keeps sending me to sites aimed at wealthy Americans and Brits. Do you have any recommendations?

I had a look at some of the charter pricing on the sites you’re talking about and yikes! The good news is that despite the proliferation of companies aimed at Vanderbilts and Gettys, you don’t need to hock a non-vital organ to charter a bareboat around Croatia.

You haven’t mentioned your budget, but Sail Croatia has beautiful vessels that sleep up to 10 people from around €4000 (about $6500) for a seven-night hire. Generally speaking, single-hull sailing yachts on this site start from €2000 ($3200) in low season up to €8000 ($13,000) in high season, while catamarans start from €6000 ($9700) for low season and head up towards €14,000 ($23,000) in the high season.

Suitable vessels available through Croatia Yachting Charter as well as Click and Boat are lower in price, but contact Discover Croatia on [phone] (or [e-mail]) and chat with the team. They’ve got an excellent guide to sailing Croatia’s islands on their site and they can make recommendations based on exactly what you’d like (skipper or no skipper, something that covers port fees etc).

Originally published as Doc Holiday: How can we prevent identity theft while traveling?