World Cup 2010 accommodation identity theft scam
Posted by
Adrian
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Posted in
419
,
hotel
,
identity_theft
,
jacob_wathome
,
scam
,
world_cup
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Posted on
11:48
Summary: Scam artists in Africa are setting up fake hostel listings in order to get paid big deposits for World Cup 2010 accommodation that does not exist.
Please make sure you triple check any accommodation you book for the World Cup before you pay!
New Zealand's football team, the All Whites, qualified for the World Cup 2010 on November 14th this year, and my friend Jared and I are lucky enough to have tickets for the games. That's great news but as anyone planning to go to the World Cup 2010 either already knows, or is about to find out, it's also an expensive pain in the ass.
We had flights and a car booked, and tickets secured. So far so good. All that left was accommodation... and that's where the fun begins.
I'd done some spreadsheet ballet and NZ had about a 5 in 8 chance of having 2 or more games within 3 hours drive of Johannesburg. My idea was to book a hostel in Johannesburg now, before the draw, and if it transpired Johannesburg wasn't going to be a good base, let it go after the draw.
The two sites I normally use for travel accommodation had nothing below £200 a night, which is way over our budget. Googled for more options and found a great alternative: HostelBookers
Professional feeling site, English postal address - ideal. Do a quick search and they have two backpackers available, one of which can take us for a reasonable rate. Well, "World Cup 2010" reasonable - 720 Euro for a twin room for 16 nights. Much better than £3200 though. Our lucky hostel is named Happy Hippo.
Even better news is HostelBookers.com offer a deposit guarantee - so we can pay 10% now, and if we cancel because the draw made Johannesburg unsuitable, they'll refund. Brilliant! Lets sign up.
Here's the email I received after booking, with the interesting bits highlighted in bold.
Hi Adrian
Thanks for booking with HostelBookers!
Please print out this confirmation and take it with you when you arrive at Happy Hippo Backpackers.
If you need to change or cancel your booking, please contact Happy Hippo Backpackers directly.
Your balance of EUR 720.00 is payable on arrival.
**Booking Information**
Reference number: 52396-xxxxxx
Name: Adrian Parker
**Dates** Check-in: 10/06/10 Check-out: 26/06/10 Nights: 16
**Accommodation Information**
Property Name: Happy Hippo Backpackers
Address: 49 Muller Street, Yeoville,, Johannesburg, 2198, South Africa
Telephone: 00254725178489
Email: jacobwathome@yahoo.com
Directions:
By car: ...for approximately 1km until you reach number 49, fourth house on the right hand-side after you’ve crossed Kenmere RoadWelcome to 2B Happy!
I let Jared know accommodation is sorted. Well, so I think...
The very next day I get an alarming email from jacobwathome@yahoo.com ( the email address HostelBookers.com gave me as contact for the hostel, must be legit ):
Dear adrian,i have received your booking confirmation and your booking voucher number is 52396-xxxxx. your type of the accommodation is based on 1double delux room for 16 nights .your dates of arrival are on 10/06/2010 out on 26/06/2010.But kindly the problem we have right now is over bookings because of the world cup.big companies are blocking the available accommodation to sell at double price begining of january.even we are almost fully booked.To guarantee you the accoommodation you need to pay 40% of the money and the remaining you can pay on arrival date.Otherwise the mangement is against keeping the rooms for the guest we are not sure if they will come.we have alot of bookings all over the world and all our guest are paying in advance to avoid inconeveniences.also read the terms and condition in your voucher as regards the hotel booking and terms of payment.kindly do this as soon as possible.you can transfer the money through western union money transfer it is the best and the cheapest than the banks.our head offices for international bookings are in Nairobi -kenya.so if you will be sending the money please send via kenya for our accounts records.Bellow are the details where you can transfer the money.WESTERN UNION-KENYANAME OF THE BENEFICIARY...............JACOB WATHOMEIDENTIFICATION NUMBER....................60954231P.O BOX 43852-00100 NAIROBI.COUNTRY....................................KENYA. TELEPHONE...............................+254 725 178489. I have tried to hold your room but the manangement want atlaest a commitment from you otherwise the demand is so high and i don't you to loose the room.reply the mail as soon as possibleJACOB WATHOME( OPERATIONS/RESERVATIONS MANAGER)
Scary huh? This freaked me out a bit - the guy needs 40% deposit to keep the booking? But I don't actually want to pay anything until after the draw - New Zealand may not end up playing near Johannesburg, we may need to cancel. However, and this is the clever bit, I am worried about accommodation - I don't want to be paying £200 a night! A faint whiff of panic begins to swirl around the room...
Upon reflection, though, questions arise.. why does a hostel in Johannesburg want to be paid in Kenya? Thats a bit strange. And he doesn't mention the name of the hostel, which is "Happy Hippo", right? Also this email is a bit, well, illiterate. And he's got my booking wrong, its a twin, not a double - I like Jared, but not that much. I do not want an accommodation cock-up on my hands.
I still think this is legitimate however, and I want this room - so I decide to try and stall a little and gain some more confidence Mr Wathome is indeed on the level.
Hi Jacobthank you for your email. Please can you reply with the name of the hostel I am staying with, and the exact amount required to be paid now. I will be able to pay this huge deposit in 2 weeks time.I am very concerned about paying into a Western Union account in Kenya! Please can I pay into a bank account in South Africa or preferably by VISA card. Both of these methods are far more secure for me, security is far more important to me than cost.Also please note I have booked a TWIN room not a double!!! TWO beds in one room.thank youAdrian
Seems fair to me, reasonable request, polite, all of that. Hopefully Mr Wathome will reassure me. 300 euro is one hell of a deposit after all.
Jacob Wathome, Operations/Reservations Manager writes back the very next day.
Dear Adrian,We deal with big corperations and the idea of saying that you do not trust this method of paying is out of question.we handle huge some of money and to deal with somebody who doesn't have a trust is hard.All the bookings that we have received from hostel bookers none had any complain interms of the payment.kindly can you read the information in your booking voucher what is says about the hotel and the mode of payment.Read keenly the terms and conditions of the hotel reservations and bookings.What is the huge money you are talking about,again we have the right to tell you where to pay the money because we have hotel property all over the world.If you feel unsecure with you money kindly we do not need it ,we have many people who need that accommodation.Our central reservations and bookings arelocated in nairobi if you cannot transfer the money there,then is upto you.we have received payment from as far as china,japan and Russia.why did you pay 10% to hostel bookers???Let me cancel your booking.
JACOB WATHOME(RESERVATIONS MANAGER)
+254-725178489.
Wow - I think I've angered this guy with my email! But I tried to be polite and everything. Oh no, I really don't want this to go to pieces because I'm being overly cautious. The Asians trust him after all, and the Russians. See the last line?
He's cancelling my booking???? Argh!
The best thing to do when an email conversation is going sour, I find, is to go voice.
I decide to call him and get things back on an even keel. I see Jacob's title has changed in his most recent signature, poor guy, he must have lost the OPERATIONS portfolio in a corporate reshuffle or something, now he's just RESERVATIONS. With a voice of suitable contrition, I give him a call.
Me: Hello, Mr Wathome? Adrian here. You emailed me a few minutes ago..."Jacob Wathome": Hello? Hello? **muffled voices, static, some mumbling** Sorry I am in meeting. I call you back!
So I'm standing in the elevator lobby having just got off the phone from Kenya thinking that's quite weird. That didn't sound like an office or any kind of business on the other line there.
Stop. Think. Reality check... completed. I just rang some dodgy dude in an internet cafe didn't I.
Lets check with HostelBookers.com and see what they have got to say...
Customer Service - HostelBookers CustomerHelpDesk@hostelbookers.com Hi this seems really suspicious!Please can you tell me if this is legitimate or not! He is threatening to cancel my booking and it reads just like a scam email.AdrianBegin forwarded message:....
While I'm waiting for HostelBookers.com to reply, I resolve not to pay any money to Kenya until Hostelbookers.com say Jacob Wathome is indeed on the level.
I'd better try and stall him some more.
Mr Wathome, please don't cancel my booking? It merely seems strange to me that I am being asked to pay a large sum of money to your account in Kenya. It is a large sum of money to me, I am not a corporation. Please do not be offended I ask questions about this. I just wish to be sure.I called you just before but you were in a meeting. Please can you reply to this email and confirm the amount I need to pay as a deposit, and that you have not cancelled this booking.Kind regardsAdrian
I decide to do a bit of amateur sleuthing. Lets check the hostel out first, the Happy Hippo in Johannesburg. Googled and discovered it does exist... but...
...it's just that the Happy Hippo is in Durban. Not Johannesburg. Happy Hippo website.
Thats really strange. Re-read the booking email from HostelBookers.com, yup definitely Johannesburg. Check the address given on Google Maps, 49 Muller Street, Yeoville - the address does exist, and Google Maps confirms it's the address of a hostel, its just named 2B Happy, not Happy Hippo.
Well thats reassuring, kind of. The name 2BHappy is pretty close to "Happy Hippo". Go back and re-read the booking email a third time - this time I notice the driving directions ends... "welcome to 2B Happy!". OK, well - maybe this hostel has two names? Happy Hippo and 2B Happy? Thats, I tell myself, at least, well.... plausible...
I get a reply from Jacob Wathome, Reservations manager.
40% of 720 euros is 296 euros.according to your booking voucher number 52396-xxxxxx. The deposit is only 296 euros.This is what is needed.
How can you say,you wanted to be sure??.we do not work on guess-work policy.we are quite proffessional.I have given you all my details where to transfer the money.This is petty money my friend.
Not even a greeting, no sign off, straight to the point, I have to be honest: Jacob Wathome sounds pissed. He thinks 296 Euros is petty money, and he's so 'proffessional' he spells it with an extra f. Interestingly I've now googled "Jacob Wathome" and he doesn't appear to have ever been mentioned on the internet. Quite some feat.
I don't reply because I want to hear from HostelBookers if he is covered by their deposit guarantee. True to their word, HostelBookers reply within 24 hours, just like their website said. I'm impressed with that service, even though it's bad news on the booking front:
Hello Adrian, Thank you for your e-mail.
We regret to inform you that we have come to the decision to cancel your reservation at the Happy Hippo Hostel.
We are currently investigating this property, which is part of a large chain, and cannot guarantee the accommodation at this point.
Of course, we are refunding your full deposit paid onto your credit card. Please allow at least 5 working days for the funds to reach your account.
Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.
Damn. Lost the Johannesburg booking! Back to the £200 a night hotels.
Good on you HostelBookers.com, for telling me straight and promptly and refunding my money without needing to be asked. That's great service. Although - see how they assure me the property is part of a large chain? In hindsight, they can't know that.
I think about it for a day,then to my surprise I hear from Jacob Wathome again:
Send to me the MTCN immediately you transfer the money for our accounts records,i will send to you the receipt of payment.
jacob
Poor chap, he's lost the Reservations manager job title now! He needs me to send him the receipt, but surely he'd know when he receives a payment notification? For that matter, if Hostelbookers.com have cancelled my booking, surely Jacob Wathome knows by now? This fishy smell keeps getting fishier.
I hear from Jacob Wathome once again:
Dear Adrian,
As you promised you will transfer the money,what happened??You told me not cancel your
booking i had to hold for a well,but so many people want to pay for the accommodation available at the moment.kindly take this matter seriously.
Regards, jacob wathome- Reservations manager.
Well thank goodness Jacob's been reinstated to the Reservations manager job, although it seems the relief has given his English a bit of a knock, poor guy.
He also seems disturbed its taken 48 hours so far to pay him, and he still doesn't know Hostelbookers.com already cancelled the booking.
I delay my response. I've finally accepted this is almost certainly a scam.
Let's look into this some more though, for curiosity's sake, I've got my money back after all. Lets start with the hostel. I know its not Happy Hippo, because that's in Durban. So lets look into 2B Happy.
Turns out 2B Happy have their own website, reasonably professional if you don't mind the menu disappearing, and yes the address is the same. I check their whois record and the website has been registered for 3 years and even has a real person's contact details, which is actually very useful. Don't hide from Whois. Using the whois email address for 2B Happy, I contact them and ask - is Jacob Wathome for real?
I get this swift reply:
Dear Adrian,
Thank you very much for not being part of the victim, these hostel bookers a scammers, they have finished people ‘s monies I hope they get caught.
...
And there, patient reader, we have the confirmation of something you probably guessed 1000 words ago or more: this is a big fat World Cup 2010 accommodation scam.
(as an aside, I reckon 2BHappy have it wrong, HostelBookers are not scammers at all, its just that a scammer used them to set up a scam. I spoke to HostelBookers briefly - in my view they are definitely a legitimate business).
HostelBookers do however have one outstanding question: how did Jacob Wathome get listed on their site in the first place?
I'm blogging about this whole saga not just because it's kind of interesting, but also as a warning to anyone about to look for cheap accommodation during the World Cup, or indeed if you have the good fortune to be in negotiation with Jacob Wathome, of Nairobi, Kenya. It's a scam. Get out now.
Here's how I think the World Cup 2010 Accommodation Identity theft scam works:
1. Find a well enough known brand in accommodation or other travel related field, and a website of a small backpackers, lodge or other kind of accommodation, not necessarily the same place. Take the name of one, and the photos, address and content from the other.
2. Find a reputable looking travel website that lists accommodation, especially a Western site with an online form so you can list rooms really fast, then go ahead and list the accommodation using the photos, content name and address you "borrowed" at step 1.
Make the rooms reasonably priced by World Cup 2010 standards, that will guarantee a flood of punters and quickly.
(The driving directions I received and the photos I saw when booking had been copied from 2BHappy's website and used on Hostelbookers.com online form 100% verbatim)
3. Wait for the flood of bookings. Travel website will helpfully give you all the punters details like email address, name, booking details AND MY CARD DETAILS GOD DAMN IT. Another card cancelled, sigh.
4. Put pressure on travelling people to pay you a large deposit right now! Else they lose the booking! Work the fear baby.
5. Collect large deposits from Western Union account, disappear.
Elegant isn't it? Elements of identity theft, and elements of a classic 419 scam, all leveraged by the hysteria that comes with trying to book travel to a quite foreign country at the same time a few million other people are trying to do the same. And you get all these valid credit card details to share amongst your friends, and their addresses and everything. The gift keeps on giving.
I tell you what: if the emails had not been ridden with spelling mistakes, and perhaps had included a proper letterhead, a logo that sounded like an official sort of accommodation manager, that sort of added polish - I think Jacob Wathome might indeed have got me.
I'm a fairly internet savvy kind of guy. I don't normally get fooled.
In my view, this is a scarily good scam.
So. In conclusion....
If you know anyone who is about to book accommodation for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, please send them a link to this blog entry.
Hopefully they'll just get a wry smile at what almost happened to me, but maybe, just maybe, they might save 300 euro or more and an awful arrival next June.
It might be the World Cup, but it's still Africa.
PS: I haven't heard from Jacob Wathome in a few days now, I hope I haven't lost my booking...
well done detective parker...
I would say that about an hour or so outside of Joburg is a hotsprings camping sight if we get desperate, or anyone else does
Good stuff. Emjoyed teh reda. Guess we'll al have to be cautious.
Nice work Adrian,
I booked "Ghandi Backpackers" in J'burg through Hostel Bookers - and received a confirmation email stating the contact person - Jacob Wathome. Have yet to receive a request for extra deposit, but pretty evident this place is fake too. Have contacted hostel bookers to confirm and refund. Awaiting reply...
i wanted to post something about the world cup in south africa in my blog when i came across your post. well done indeed Adrian.
these kinds of scams especially from Kenya are well documented in our country.
the national television station had also bust this scammers here in Kuala Lumpur but let me tell you, they're everywhere!
you guys better be careful and enjoy SA and WC2010. i'll be watching it live on the telly :)
Report all scams at http://www.allscamsforum.com. Support by providing a Link to the forum and get a link back. Thanks!
Thanks so much for posting this. I have a booking with 2B Happy Backpackers during the world cup. Do you think they are also fake or are a real hostel?
@Francis - please let me be clear:
2B Happy is a legitimate backpackers. Stay there with confidence. I certainly plan to! Make sure you use the contact form directly on the 2B Happy website at http://www.2bhappy.co.za
Happy Hippo, in Johannesburg, is not legitimate. HAPPY HIPPO IS A FAKE HOSTEL.
It is my opinion that "Jacob Wathome" stole the address and part of the name of 2B Happy when constructing the FAKE backpackers "Happy Hippo" which he listed on Hostelbookers.com
I also understand other fake websites were at one time listed with Hostelbookers.com, probably due to it being so easy.
Thanks for posting this, it's very useful!
Just to clarify, there is a fully legitimate hostel called Happy Hippo in Durban, 222 Mahatma Ghandi road, run by Michael Brooks.
http://www.happy-hippo.info/
@Anonymous - very good point. Too many Hippos! The Happy Hippo in Durban is absolutely a legitimate hostel, and rather a nice one too.
Demonstrates the power of this scams approach - take the address of a legitimate hostel (2BHappy) and the name of a legitimate hostel (Happy Hippo) - mix them together to create your fake. There's enough information on the web to convince the casual observer it must be real - but its not....
Adrian,thank you for your detailed input. If anyone reading this blog has information regarding victims who have been scammed , particularly by perpertrators located in South Africa, please indicate so and an SAPS (South African Police Service) contact shall be provided where you may submit further information. This blog shall be checked periodically over the weeks leading to the 2010 event. Please note this is not a service intended to check if your booking is legitimate, however if your booking and payment really seem suspicious then please indicate. Beware of correspondence asking you to carry large amounts of cash into the country to make your payment when you arrive (legit agencies should take credit cards) and even worse , if the advertiser has indicated they will arrange to collect you from the airport when you arrive with your cash. Beware of any persons asking for money in order to help you check for a scam or locate / trace lost funds. Also make sure you only communicate with legitimate units listed on the SAPS website , www.saps.gov.za, such as commercial crimes unit or crime intelligence or via an email address in the format @saps.org.za
This is the kind of thing I try to teach people. Can I count on a sequel?
This is such a very interesting post and also a very alarming one. World Cups definitely packs countless people and individuals with fraudulent minds will surely take this as an opportunity to perform their unlawful activities. Thank you for sharing this helpful information.
I wasnt as smart as you, and ended up sending our friend Jacob about 100 dollars. But guess who found me on linkedin, and sent a friend request...