Close booking.com for fraud

Fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment are threats to security, as they represent a source of income for organised crime and are therefore enablers for other criminal activities such as terrorism, drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings.

Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.123.01.0018.01.ENG.

I was scammed on the booking app for 1,000 euros more than 1 month ago, after booking a hotel. Their customer service tells me that the bank documents I provided are invalid and that my refund application was rejected.

Basically, neither booking nor the hotel take responsibility and no one wants to reimburse me the thousand euros.

From a small investigation I conducted, dozens of people have been scammed in a similar way in Italy alone. If you digit "credit card booking scam" into Google search, the search engine shows you 1,300,000 results (!!!).

It seems that the situation is evolving significantly, but booking does nothing to help resolve the claims, does not provide any type of support to customers and has not solved their security problem. Although this scam dates back to at least 2016.

Other people scammed similarly:

• J. Berridge
• K. Wright
• micco78
• davide17
• ocampana
• Chiara P
• ....

It seems that Booking Holdings is absolutely violating:

• Directive (EU) 2019/713 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/413/JHA

It seems that Booking Holdings is probably violating:

• Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’)
• Consolidated text: Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
• Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements, amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 90/314/EEC
• Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC (Text with EEA relevance).

It is estimated that in 2013, criminals stole €1.44 billion through non-cash payment fraud. Every year, European citizens receive around 36 billion phishing messages.

Fraud and counterfeiting of means of payment other than cash have a significant cross-border dimension, accentuated by their increasingly digital nature, which underlines the need for action to approximate criminal law in the area of fraud and counterfeiting of means of payment. payment other than cash. Fraud is not only used to finance criminal groups, but also limits the development of the digital single market and makes citizens more reluctant to make online purchases.

Source: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/it/press/press-releases/2019/04/09/eu-puts-in-place-tighter-rules-to-fight-non-cash-payment-fraud.