I’m a single mom who was trying ahead to household vacation in Cornwall after I realised I’d fallen sufferer to a rip-off – I died inside

A single mother who hoped to enjoy a brief get-away in Cornwall revealed she ‘died inside’ when she found out it was all a scam. 

Natasha Shek from Lingfield in Surrey discovered the property through an advert on social media. 

The parent event went to the extent of asking for ID and a utility bill before handing over £280 to who she believed owned the Cornish home. 

However as their holiday edged closer the man stopped replying to her messages, meaning her family had no where to stay.  

‘I suddenly died inside, because we had a week to go and we had nowhere booked,’ she told the BBC.

‘My heart sunk and I just felt so disappointed with myself. It was the fact I had fallen victim to a scam.’

Natasha told the police what occurred, and the force helped her get the money back from her bank so that she could arrange alternative accommodation.

Experts have revealed that holiday scams can be a profitable industry for fraudsters. 

Natasha Shek, (pictured) a single mother from Lingfield in Surrey, said ‘she died inside’ when she found out her holiday accommodation in Cornwall was a scam

But it isn’t only customers being tricked, business owner Sarah Broadbent (pictured) had her images stolen from her website and used by scammers

In 2024, Booking.com warned customers that AI was spearheading a rise in travel scams, with reported cases up by 900% in just a year-and-a-half.  

Action Fraud statistics also echo a similar tale, with their reports indicating that holiday scams were up by 2,213 cases from 4,244 in 2021/22. 

Describing the crooks as ‘despicable’, she revealed they even went to the extent of using the names of one of her properties for the site 

It was estimated £15.3 million was lost to holiday scams in 2022/2023 alone. 

However the single mother isn’t the only person who was duped out of hundreds of pounds, as Sam Kirkwood from Poole also fell victim to the scam two years ago. 

Mr Kirkwood was hoping to attend an England cricket match when he booked his accommodation in Cardiff. 

But he was left horrified when he arrived at the property to be told he was the third person to have been duped in one week alone. 

Booking.com gave Mr Kirkwood his money back as well as the extra £100 he had to shell out in finding another place to stay. 

The platform informed the BBC that his booking has been cancelled because an individual had been removing their property from the site. 

Trading Standards manager Clive Phillips (pictured) divulged that victims are often in the dark about such scams ‘until the last minute’

However customers aren’t the only victims of these lucrative scams, with even business owners having their images stolen. 

Sarah Broadbent from Beckley who owns a glamping business unearthed that her properties were on a fraudulent site – which is no longer online.

The images had been ‘directly’ snatched from her own website, with the website even named after one of her premises. 

Describing the fraudsters as ‘despicable’, she added: I had a huge number of people contacting me via social media to query what they had seen as a deal online that seemed to be too good to be true.’

Kent Trading Standards said con-artists are using social media or clones of well-known travel websites to trick consumers.

Trading Standards manager Clive Phillips, said that victims often don’t know they have been duped until ‘the last minute’.

He recalled a situation where one man had purchased tickets to see his family in India but as he arrived at Heathrow Airport it was discovered that the flights ‘didn’t exist’.  

MailOnline has approached Action Fraud for comment.