Kiwi woman Georgia Pemberton booked a Gold Coast property on Bookabach for her and nine friends, not knowing she had been scammed. Images / File
Kiwi woman Georgia Pemberton booked a Gold Coast property on Bookabach for her and nine friends, not knowing she had been scammed. Images / File
A dream holiday for a group of Kiwi friends turned sour after they arrived at what they thought was their booked accommodation, only to find they had been scammed.
Social content creator and popular TikTok influencer Georgia Pemberton took to the social media site to share how she and hernine friends were duped by a fake Bookabach listing.
The friends paid a total of A$10,000 ($11,570) to spend eight days at a Gold Coast property, in Australia, she found on the Bookabach website.
“The photos looked great,” Pemberton says of the property.
“I knock on the door ... and this girl comes out. And she’s like: ‘Hi, can I help you’? I said: ‘Yeah, we’ve booked this place on Bookabach.
The property owner guessed that whoever made the fake listing had taken photos of her home from an old real estate listing.
They had also seemingly taken personal photos of her available online.
“The girl [who] came out was the same girl that was the host in the Bookabach pictures, so this scammer has taken photos of the woman from her WhatsApp and has pretended to be her.”
The group of 10 friends flew to the Gold Coast for a fun break to celebrate the new year. Photo / Supplied
With nowhere to go, the group found themselves at a local park trying to figure out where they would spend the night.
One of their party managed to get through to someone at Bookabach and they were granted a few nights’ free stay at a hotel.
They were then able to book accommodation at a different property with Airbnb.
A spokesman for Bookabach’s parent company, Expedia Group, told News.com.au that they were actively investigating the matter.
‘Moral of the story - be careful’
They also acknowledged that the fake listing on their website had been removed and people were no longer able to make bookings for that property.
“We sincerely apologise for Ms Pemberton’s experience and want to assure you that we take any claims of fraudulent use of our platform very seriously.”
Pemberton warned others who may look to book accommodation through websites such as Bookabach of the potential risks.
