Wednesday 3 August 2022 05:45 PM Dozens of holidaymakers turn up at London home after scammers put address on ... trends now

Dozens of holidaymakers have turned up at the home of a woman from London after scammers put her address on Booking.com.

The woman, who only gave her first name as Gillian, had been at home in the north of the city on July 4 when a woman and her daughter knocked on her door saying they had booked the property.

After turning them away she then had to deal with dozens of other people who knocked on her door throughout the month.

They had come from all over the world, with some travelling from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Australia, only to find the place they had booked didn't exist.

Instead they had all been victims of a scam on Booking.com, where a fake listing duped them into thinking they had hired the woman's home for their trip abroad.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme, Gillian said she had no idea what was to come when she opened her door to the first weary travellers.

She said: 'Someone knocked on my door. I opened it and it was this poor, very tired woman, presumably from Hong Kong, her daughter at the end of the gate, with hundreds of cases. 

'It seemed to me, obviously [they had] just come from the airport.'

'They said they'd booked my house with Booking.com.

'I said, "No you haven't, because it's not on Booking.com". I've never let this house.

'She looked aghast and I said, "You'll just have to go back to them. I'm sorry, there's some misunderstanding".'

Gillian thought that might be the end of it, but only a few hours later she had 'three or four people' knocking on her door saying exactly the same thing.