A theatre-goer fell victim to a “sophisticated phishing attack” after booking a “luxury” London apartment, only to discover the address was a Wetherspoon pub.
Paul Dawson, from Loughborough in Leicestershire, paid £73 for a one-night stay for his family via Booking.com at The London Crown apartments to watch the musical Hamilton in the West End.
Days later, he said, he discovered the address shown in the listing was actually The Liberty Bounds pub, a Wetherspoon near Tower Bridge.
Consumer protection organisation Which? said Wetherspoon staff had been turning away up to 20 tourists a day after scammers used the pub’s address as a listing for a “block of luxury apartments”.
Which? said it was also made aware of a property listed as “Apartments near Big Ben”, with the address given as Portcullis House, part of the House of Commons estate, where hundreds of MPs work.
Booking.com told Which? that in both cases, listings for legitimate properties had been targeted by a “sophisticated phishing attack, allowing criminals to hijack the listings”.
Wetherspoon said it had informed Booking.com about this scam “as soon as it came to their attention”.