A family from Salford say they were left stranded on their luxury holiday after a scammer cancelled their hotel booking. Tania Rowan had booked a stay for six people at the Charmillion Club Resort in Egypt through package holiday provider On the Beach.
The family was due to check in on August 5 and return on August 12. According to Tania, the day before flying out, she was tricked out of £768 after calling a number and speaking to a man she thought worked for On the Beach.
Scam call before departure
Tania, 51, made the call after she was unable to log onto the On the Beach app to check her booking status ahead of the flight. She told the Manchester Evening News how she found the number on Google with the help of her daughter. During the call with a person she presumed to be an On the Beach representative, she was told her account was short of £768.
Tania paid the alleged remaining balance but realised something was off after the fraudster asked for another £400. After hanging up, she received an email from On the Beach saying a request to cancel the booking had been made and she had 24 hours to manually override it. However, the scam call left her feeling 'vulnerable' and unsure if the message was genuine, so she dismissed it.
"I do think that email was legit, but I'm vulnerable then," she told the MEN. "Your head is all over, you're flying out the day after, you've got kids to worry about. Surely there should have been another way to get in touch with me?"
Stranded at the resort
Tania checked if her TUI flight to Egypt had been affected, which it hadn't. The next day, she and her family, 14 people in total, flew to Egypt and arrived at the resort. However, while checking in, hotel staff told Tania that On the Beach had cancelled the booking. Six members of the group were left without rooms, including Tania, her husband Mark, 53, their friend and three children.
"In a nutshell they said, here's the street, deal with it with On the Beach," said Mark. "We tried to get in touch with On the Beach for the whole week, no reply." Despite many attempts, the family could not contact On the Beach to resolve the situation. They scrambled for last-minute accommodation 20 minutes away from the resort.
"We found accommodation at the cost of another £450 each. We went from all-inclusive five-star hotel to a self-catering with no English people at all," Mark continued. Tania said she was disappointed with the lack of support from On the Beach and the resort. "The bit I can't get my head around is no-one helped us," she told the MEN. "No-one cared we had nowhere to stay. We tried to beg the receptionist, 'please, please help me, I've got children'. She wouldn't do anything; it broke my heart."
No reimbursement yet
The family states that On the Beach has yet to reimburse the £6,300 spent on the trip, which took months to save for after a difficult few years. "Someone's got my money, I paid £6,300 for this holiday. I paid for a service, for food and accommodation that we've not had," said Tania. Mark added: "We saved up two years for this, my wife was in a coma and nearly died. My daughter had just finished her exams, and this was to say, 'life is getting back on track'."
"We found out that the person that asked for that money was a fraudster. We'd been frauded and scammed the day before we flew out. Why the fraudster has cancelled the holiday? We don't know, they don't get any money out of it, why would they do that to three people and three children?"
A spokesperson for On the Beach said: "We're sorry to hear about Tania's experience. Tania unfortunately fell victim to a scammer impersonating On the Beach and was persuaded to share security and personal information. We've been in contact with Tania and advised how to report the incident to her bank. Unfortunately, scammers impersonating well-known businesses are increasingly common. We urge customers to never share account security information with anyone and to only manage their booking through their secure On the Beach account."
