Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes (or less!)
If you are the type of person who wants to start getting your finances in order but don't exactly know where to start, or maybe you just aren't all that interested in finance, this is the podcast for you! Stacey Hyde covers many different topics under the umbrella of basic, need-to-know financial planning information, but simplifies it in a way for everyone to understand. Envision Financial Planning. 5100 Poplar Avenue, Suite 2428, Memphis TN 38137. (901) 422-7526, This communication is strictly intended for individuals residing in the United States. Advisory Services offered through Envision Financial Planning, a Registered Investment Adviser.
Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes (or less!)
Protecting Your Summer Plans: Avoiding Travel Booking Scams
Ready for summer vacation? So are scammers. This episode tackles the sophisticated travel booking scams that peak between April and July, threatening to turn your dream getaway into a financial nightmare.
Discover how fraudsters create convincing replicas of trusted sites like Airbnb, VRBO, and major travel booking platforms. We expose their tactics—from urgency-creating emails to fake listings with copied photos—and provide practical safeguards anyone can implement. The simple 60-second check I share could save your entire vacation and thousands of dollars.
We explore the red flags that signal potential fraud, like requests for gift card payments or wire transfers instead of credit cards. Learn why booking directly through official websites by manually typing URLs offers crucial protection, and why performing reverse image searches on property photos could reveal scams before you lose money.
This episode provides special guidance for protecting vulnerable populations, particularly older adults who may not recognize subtle differences between legitimate and fraudulent websites. The practical strategies shared work for both domestic and international bookings, ensuring you can enjoy wonderful vacation experiences while avoiding the increasingly sophisticated scams targeting travelers.
Take a moment to share this episode with friends and family planning summer trips—especially those who might be more vulnerable to these schemes. And remember: if a travel deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Subscribe for more practical financial protection strategies delivered in 15 minutes or less!
Envision Financial Planning. 5100 Poplar Avenue, Suite 2428, Memphis, TN 38137. (901) 422-7526. This communication is strictly intended for individuals residing in the United States. Advisory Services offered through Envision Financial Planning, a Registered Investment Adviser.
Hi, I'm Stacey Hyde and I'm back for another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less, and today I'd like to talk about how we get ready for summer vacation and how to avoid scams deals that are too good to be true. So the key thing to keep in mind is deals that are too good to be true usually are Pay attention. You may get an email that looks like it's from Southwest or Expedia or some other large travel site telling you to book now, book immediately, and you click a link and it takes you to a site and it looks similar. But protect yourself. Go to the regular site and type it into your browser and see if the same deals available there. That's a quick way to check.
Speaker 1:The other thing to keep in mind is that and where we're seeing this is fake scams for Airbnb or VRBO, and they've gotten pretty good like literally, they'll copy the pictures from a real site, create a fake site, get you to enter your payment information and then you think you've booked because you it looked like Airbnb or VRBO, and then all of a sudden, you're not getting the confirmation you expected or it's not showing up in your Airbnb app. So really, before you click on any of these, especially ones that you see posted on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. Go to the Airbnb or the VRBO site and search it. You can also take that image and do a reverse image search in Google to see if you really are on the right site and if those rates really are the right rates and if you really are on the right site. So you really have to take that extra bit of time. The other red flags that you can watch out for is are they asking you to pay with a gift card or something like that? They certainly don't want you to pay for a credit card with a credit card, because as soon as you find fraud, you call your credit card company and you dispute it and let them know what happened. They'll send you a new card and refund your money. What happened? They'll send you a new card and refund your money. So anytime they're asking you to pay with something other than your credit card, that's definitely a red flag, because the reputable sites expect you to pay with the credit card. So take an extra 60 seconds and a gut check and just make sure that it is what it is that you're booking, because you don't want to have something happen.
Speaker 1:The FTC, which tracks this kind of fraud, says these types of scams really peak between now and July. So protect yourself. Pay attention, tell those you love. Protect yourself, pay attention, tell those you love, especially if you are around older people. A lot of times they're not as adept at picking up that. Hey, that doesn't look like Airbnb or something like that. Help them out, offer to check it out if they find something they think they like and they're going to book it, because you can book some wonderful vacations. We've used VRBO, even internationally, and had wonderful success. But you definitely need to make sure that you're on the right site and you're definitely using a credit card. I would not even use a debit card to book vacations like this, so I hope you are looking forward to a wonderful vacation this summer. This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less.