In a recent article from the Free Press Journal, a cyber-secure techie from Mira Bhayandar lost ₹5 lakh after falling prey to a hotel rating scam. The victim was contacted by a scammer posing as a representative of a popular hotel booking website. The scammer claimed that the victim’s hotel review had been flagged as spam and that they needed to pay a fine in order to have it reinstated. The victim, who was unaware that they had been scammed, paid the fine and never received their review back.
This scam could have been prevented if the victim had used Castler Escrow. Castler Escrow is a secure platform that allows buyers and sellers to make payments without having to share their bank account information. When using Castler Escrow, the buyer would deposit the payment into an escrow account held by Castler. The seller would then deliver the goods or services to the buyer. Once the buyer has verified that the goods or services are in good condition, they would release the funds from the escrow account to the seller.
In this case, if the victim had used Castler Escrow, they would have been protected from the scammer. The scammer would not have been able to access the victim’s funds until the victim had verified that the hotel review had been reinstated. This would have given the victim time to realize that they were being scammed and to cancel the transaction.
Castler Escrow is a valuable tool that can help protect you from scams. If you are ever asked to make a payment online, be sure to use a secure platform like Castler Escrow.
