Staff at Wetherspoons pub in London forced to turn away '20 tourists a day' after Booking.com scam used address for fake 'luxury apartments'

Scammers are managing to set up fraudulent listings on Booking.com that are sending holidaymakers to Wetherspoons instead of accommodation. Which? recently revealed it was able to create fake listings and accept payments on the holiday site for 10 Downing Street, demonstrating the security issues on the platform. It has now been revealed that genuine fraudsters have been able to set up false listings, including one using the address of a Wetherspoons pub near Tower Bridge, The Liberty Bounds, posing as a 'block of luxury apartments'.Paul Dawson, 55, fell victim to the scam when he booked a one-night stay for himself and his wife and daughter at The London Crown apartments.The tourist, from Loughborough, had planned a London weekend away with his family and had tickets to watch a West End musical.Mr Dawson paid around £73 and made the reservation via Booking.com but alarm bells rang when he was emailed two days later by The London Crown with a link to a fake Booking.com page, which asked for his bank details. Paul Dawson booked a night's stay at The London Crown before realising it was a scam The fake apartment used the address of a Wetherspoons pub near Tower BridgeMr Dawson contacted Booking.com to raise his concerns, but the platform told him that he would need to visit the fake apartment and wait until after 7pm before it would relocate him. This was despite Mr Dawson explaining to them that he had since discovered the address shown in the listing was in fact for The Liberty Bounds pub.Mr Dawson told the consumer champion: 'I explained to the support staff that I had autistic children and the idea of turning up at a clearly non-existent property at 10.30pm would have been catastrophic. 'This did not change their response that I needed to go to the property. They said that if it was not possible to check in then I could contact them again and they would find an alternative.' However, it seems Mr Dawson is not the first to raise concerns about the London Crown apartments. The listing was still visible on Booking.com on September 23, according to Which?, and had over 250 negative reviews from August and September. There were also a handful of positive reviews which the organisation believes were likely fake. Many of the reviews from customers claim that they told Booking.com that it was a scam but had been ignored. Workers at The Liberty Bounds pub revealed they turn away around 20 distressed tourists a day who believe they have booked a stay at the apartments. The listing is still currently live on Booking.com but it is not possible to make reservationsWetherspoons told Which? that Booking.com urgently needs to adopt more robust procedures to prevent fraudulent listings like this from appearing in the first place.The pub chain reported the scam to Booking.com and the listing briefly disappeared on August 10. However, it soon reappeared. The platform blocked bookings in August but the listing remained on the site and it seems the fraudsters have been able to continue with their antics as victims claim to have been scammed and have left reviews as recently as September 24. At the time of writing, the listing is still on the site but it is not possible to make a booking. The most recent review said: 'Fake. This property does not exist.' A different customer wrote: 'I reported it to Booking.com three days before check-in but they refused to do anything.'Another customer, from Spain, shared: 'Two girls alone in London at two o'clock in the morning with no accommodation.'One foreign tourist reported that her group of eight was left without anywhere to stay at midnight.According to Which?, other booking platforms like Airbnb or Expedia would not allow a scammer to send a clickable link demanding bank details in the way Mr Dawson experienced. It comes after Which? revealed it was able to create a fake ad and accept payments on the holiday site for 10 Downing StreetIt has called on Booking.com to take action and deal with the 'glaring security gap'.Which? also found that the fake apartment listing reached so many people because it was allowed to join a programme to boost visibility on the site. It boasted a reassuring 'thumbs up' symbol and stated that the property was part of the Preferred Plus Programme which 'is committed to providing outstanding service and excellent value. It will pay us a higher commission if you make a booking.'Which? has also noticed a property listed as ‘Apartments near Big Ben’. The advert contains the address of Portcullis House – part of the House of Commons estate where hundreds of MPs work. Many customers showed up to the premises, only to be turned away by armed security guards.A spokesman for Booking.com told Which?: 'Our investigation indicates that both properties - which are legitimate and have hosted guests - were targeted by a sophisticated phishing attack. 'The attack affected the properties' own computer systems and gave cybercriminals temporary, unauthorised access to the accommodation's Booking.com account.'We take incidents like this extremely seriously, and suspended bookings at both properties, as well as supporting affected customers.'