Booking.com not refunding verification payments

[legalfun]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right section.

In May 2023 I made a hotel booking with booking.com on a Barclays credit card and paid at the time, no issues.

On 11/09/2023, I received an email from booking.com

"Hello Esteemed Visitor!
Currently, our booking assistance team has notified us about you need to undergo a card verification process, even though you have already made the payment for your reservation. Suspicious activities have been detected in your account, and the reservation amount will be charged to your card and swiftly refunded.

Esteemed visitor, please be informed that this is not a payment but a card authentication carried out by Booking. Kindly utilize the direct link provided in your email to conduct the verification and confirm your booking.

You have a time window of 24 hours to confirm your reservation; failure to do so will result in its cancellation"

Although it looks a bit scammy, it came from the hotel through booking.com. The email was verified as legitimate by booking.com and it had my booking details. The email also contains a link to carry out the verification which opens up the booking.com app itself.

I proceeded with the verification but used my Monzo debit card due to wanting to avoid currency conversion fees.

I accepted the payment request through my Monzo app and a payment of £3.3k was made. Another request came through and I also accepted, so another payment of £3.3k was taken. I was very hesitant with both payments but the email seemed legitimate and didn't want to lose my booking (the trip is an important one for my 30 year old wife with stage 4 lung cancer).

After further requests came, I declined them. I felt it was too bizarre to be requesting this money for verification and really shouldn't have accepted the earlier two.

I called booking.com but the department was closed so I called again in the morning. Again they confirmed the email came from booking.com. But speaking with the hotel, they said they did not send the email. Booking.com were possibly hacked but they have given no answers.

After speaking with booking.com they have said they will refund the amounts. But request a letter from Monzo that confirms that I first need to resolve it with booking.com before I can raise a dispute. They originally said in-chat screenshots were fine but the finance department apparently said no, that an official letter was needed.

Booking.com have accepted the issue lies with them but are making it difficult to give my money back. I cannot understand why they need a letter. I have provided in-chat screenshots that clearly stated booking.com need to handle this and have shown that raising a dispute for the transactions show a warning that I must first attempt to resolve this with the merchant. They refuse any of this.

Now, requesting this letter has been difficult. I have explained the situation to Monzo, tried to dispute the payments, requested the letter, but they have no timeline on when they can give this. They first said 8 hours, then 24 hours, then no timeline at all and can't give me any updates.

I'm stuck. I don't know what Monzo are doing that it takes so long to provide a letter for what they already provided in chat and don't even know if booking.com will refund me anyways.

I should note in the first two days of making the payments, they were in a pending state I e. the merchant had not accepted it yet. Dispute providing evidence to Monzo, they refused the disputes. The payments have now fully been taken.

I'm at a loss here, how should I proceed? I tried emailing the CEO of booking.com and made a complaint to Monzo but no progress.

[samsmoot]

Letter Before Action to Booking.com?

[legalfun]

Hmm, so a money claim then? Is that it (sorry don't mean this rudely)?

An I right in thinking booking.com are being unreasonable (despite this I am trying to get a letter from Monzo)

[samsmoot]

Hmm, so a money claim then? Is that it (sorry don't mean this rudely)?

An I right in thinking booking.com are being unreasonable (despite this I am trying to get a letter from Monzo)

Not exactly. It shouldn't come to that if you send an LBA. Booking.com is being unreasonable, as they appear to have money which is yours, so it seems appropriate to make a formal demand of some sort. Perhaps instead send a strongly worded letter to the company's registered address - signed for letter - would be sufficient to get the ball rolling. Their response should clarify Booking.com's explanation/intent, and your letter should make it clear that this is the least you expect.

Then you'll have more information, either positive or negative, and you can proceed from there, either with a letter before claim or a plea for empathy, depending on what's said.

An LBA is my typical go-to for legal issues because it gets things done, but to be sure of getting it right it might be best to send a nice letter first.

[legalfun]

So a nice letter before LBA? What should I say?

"Dear x,

I am writing with regards to refunding me the verification payments that were taken as requested in email by booking.com.

"

Not really sure what else to say or how to make it nice to be honest

[samsmoot]

So a nice letter before LBA? What should I say?

"Dear x,

I am writing with regards to refunding me the verification payments that were taken as requested in email by booking.com.

"

Not really sure what else to say or how to make it nice to be honest

'Dear [Name of Registered owner of Booking.com (send it to their business address)],

Can you please help me with resolving the following issue:

[Explain the facts as you outlined above as clearly as you can in this paragraph, including dates, references to messages etc.].

Booking.com has accepted that my money is with them, and a refund has been agreeed, but Booking.com first requires a statement from Monzo before releasing my funds back to me. Whilst I appreciate that Booking.com would like this confirmation, it should be noted that I have no way to compel Monzo to provide this information to me, and it appears that they won't be doing this, despite repeated requests.

I would like my money back as soon as possible, and it's unfair that I should be kept waiting for it due to the inability or unwillingness of Monzo to provide documentation to myself or Booking.com. As stated above, I have provided all of the information that I am able to, and so now the only obstacle appears to be Monzo.

Therefore can you please proceed with my refund on the basis that Monzo will not be providing the information asked for. It is quite clear that the sum in question belongs to me, and that I am entitled to get it back, and that regardless of what Monzo says or doesn't say, this wouldn't change that fact.

With this in mind, it would be appropriate at this stage to review this matter, including documents, messages and any other communications and information in order to establish that you have my money and that I am entitled to have it paid back to me immediately, with or without Monzo's input.

If you disagree with this analysis, would you please mind explaining what you believe the legal situation to be? It isn't reasonable that Booking.com can escape liability due to the failings of a third-party provider - am I really expected to not get my money back because Monzo aren't providing documents? Surely not - therefore can I please have it or an explanation of why I can't.

I am happy to provide any further information or clarity, but I think a quick review of the facts and Booking.com's legal resposibilities in this situation will provide all that's needed for my funds to be cleared and returned to me.

Yours Faithfully etc.'

[legalfun]

thanks for this Samsmoot, I will be sending this ASAP.

In the meantime, it seems as though it is a scam after all and booking.com were hacked or breached somehow.

Who is liable here? I would primarily think Booking.com. But there was a period where the payments were held in a pending state, for a good few days - I informed Monzo the next day (when the payments were still in a pending state) and they had plenty of time to stop the payments.

[samsmoot]

Oh dear! If it's a scam, the letter to Booking.com may not work. But if it IS a scam, why are Booking.com agreeing the refund/accepting responsibility? This may help a lot if that's what they said.

You might need to send a letter to Monzo (are they UK based?).

I'm going to have to go over your initial post again and try and figure out who would be liable. Monzo may or may not have been in the wrong, but I don't know at this point. This doesn't look particularly easy, but there will be logical steps to follow - looking at Monzo's T&Cs might be worthwhile - see what they say about stopping payments, and how they handle fraudulent transactions. And see what they say about providing the evidence that Booking.com said was needed.

[legalfun]

Definitely a scam.

Not really sure why booking.com are agreeing to refund... Perhaps because the email came from their platform (with all my booking details and personal info in it?). To add, they keep giving me conflicting info. One person will say the letter is not needed and they will process it, then later on i'll receive another email saying they need the letter.

Here's what Monzo have to say (https://monzo.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/):

"We’re responsible to you for any foreseeable loss and damage which we cause. When we say ‘foreseeable’, this means we could or should have expected those losses. This includes if we breach the terms of this contract or fail to use reasonable care or skill providing services to you.
For example, we’ll usually refund your money if:

it was taken after you froze your card in the app, unless you acted fraudulently

we should’ve applied strong customer authentication but we didn’t, unless you acted fraudulently

someone makes a payment without your permission.

We’ll also refund any money you lose if we make mistakes with your payments. We can help by speaking to other banks to make sure they treat any payment we send late as if it was sent on time.

Examples of when you won’t be able to claim back money you’ve lost may include if:

you gave us incorrect instructions or we can prove that the bank we sent your payment to received it (although we’ll still try to help you recover your money)

you purposefully didn’t keep your phone, card (including virtual card), PIN or other security details safe, you were very negligent in not keeping them safe, you gave them to someone else, or your account is overdrawn

you acted fraudulently."

[samsmoot]

In May 2023 I made a hotel booking with booking.com on a Barclays credit card and paid at the time, no issues.

On 11/09/2023, I received an email from booking.com

"Hello Esteemed Visitor!
Currently, our booking assistance team has notified us about you need to undergo a card verification process, even though you have already made the payment for your reservation. Suspicious activities have been detected in your account, and the reservation amount will be charged to your card and swiftly refunded.

Esteemed visitor, please be informed that this is not a payment but a card authentication carried out by Booking. Kindly utilize the direct link provided in your email to conduct the verification and confirm your booking.

You have a time window of 24 hours to confirm your reservation; failure to do so will result in its cancellation"

I didn't really concentrate on this bit due to it looking like Booking.com had agreed a refund. But it looks 100% scammy to me. The 'Hello Esteemed Visitor' salutation is an odd one, and it's not even accurate - you are a customer, not a visitor.

Although it looks a bit scammy, it came from the hotel through booking.com. The email was verified as legitimate by booking.com and it had my booking details. The email also contains a link to carry out the verification which opens up the booking.com app itself.

I use a computer - I would check/ trace the actual email address (I think they can be disguised) and hover over the link and see the actual web address of the link at the bottom of the window. If you are using your mobile I imagine you can do something similar. I know little about mobile phone security, but maybe it wasn't the actual app? And was a fake site?

I proceeded with the verification but used my Monzo debit card due to wanting to avoid currency conversion fees.

I accepted the payment request through my Monzo app and a payment of £3.3k was made. Another request came through and I also accepted, so another payment of £3.3k was taken. I was very hesitant with both payments but the email seemed legitimate and didn't want to lose my booking (the trip is an important one for my 30 year old wife with stage 4 lung cancer).


After further requests came, I declined them. I felt it was too bizarre to be requesting this money for verification and really shouldn't have accepted the earlier two.

So this is apparently some sort of fraudulent scheme. In which case you may wish to consider reporting it.

I called booking.com but the department was closed so I called again in the morning. Again they confirmed the email came from booking.com.

They probaly didn't check properly is my initial thought, but they twice confirmed it was them that sent the email, so we have to accept that they did, however strange the email was.


But speaking with the hotel, they said they did not send the email. Booking.com were possibly hacked but they have given no answers.

The email either came from Booking.com or not. If they DID send it, as they say they did, they would be confirming their responsibility for the subsequent payments being made. If they didn't send the email, it would mean they were wrong to say that they did, and an explanation would be appropriate.

After speaking with booking.com they have said they will refund the amounts.

Great! You have an acceptance of liability and an offer of settlement. Proceeding on that basis, possibly with a similar letter suggested above, might be the way to go. But I would bear in mind that Booking.com may realise that they DIDN'T send the email and retract their offer.

But request a letter from Monzo that confirms that I first need to resolve it with booking.com before I can raise a dispute. They originally said in-chat screenshots were fine but the finance department apparently said no, that an official letter was needed.

A letter to their registered business address asking for the letter may be apt then?

Booking.com have accepted the issue lies with them but are making it difficult to give my money back. I cannot understand why they need a letter. I have provided in-chat screenshots that clearly stated booking.com need to handle this and have shown that raising a dispute for the transactions show a warning that I must first attempt to resolve this with the merchant. They refuse any of this.

Now, requesting this letter has been difficult. I have explained the situation to Monzo, tried to dispute the payments, requested the letter, but they have no timeline on when they can give this. They first said 8 hours, then 24 hours, then no timeline at all and can't give me any updates.

I'm stuck. I don't know what Monzo are doing that it takes so long to provide a letter for what they already provided in chat and don't even know if booking.com will refund me anyways.

Asking them whilst also writing to Booking.com might be best. I would send both letters at the same time, but include a copy of the letter to Monzo with your BDC one, and add a mention of it in your letter to Booking.com. You can forward any reply from Monzo to Booking.com at a later date, if necessary, you will say.

I should note in the first two days of making the payments, they were in a pending state I e. the merchant had not accepted it yet. Dispute providing evidence to Monzo, they refused the disputes. The payments have now fully been taken.

Perhaps they were wrong to refuse the disputes - perhaps not. You can either enquire into this by looking at the T&Cs, or by suggesting to Monzo that they were wrong (in your letter that you will send), and allowing them to explain why they were or were not wrong.

I'm at a loss here, how should I proceed? I tried emailing the CEO of booking.com and made a complaint to Monzo but no progress.

Research email address/web link/T&Cs; send letters; consider that there could be criminality involved which may need to be mentioned at some point.

My major concern is that booking.com wlll discover that the email was fake and deny responsibility. Therefore the best way to proceed may be to put that to one side for the moment and push Booking.com to honour their promise of a refund by way of a letter along the lines suggested.

[legalfun]

Thanks for that Samsoot, appreciate the replies.

I agree getting a refund from booking.com would be the best route.

You're right about the "esteemed visitor" greeting, it is the standard scam opening. But I suppose I ignored it as the email contained my personal info and booking info.

What I believe has happened is the hotel may have been breached instead. The scammer has used the hotel to send an email through booking.com. As you usually communicate via Booking.com, the scammer sent an email acting as the hotel through booking.com - their email would normally be disregared but it was embedded into an email from booking.com, again with my personal and booking details.

[legalfun]

An update.

I let monzo get on with their investigation. They found that I did not take any precautions and unfortunately they would not internally refund me, nor could they invoke a charge back.

Cool, so I ask for a letter to give to Booking.com. They gave it but with only 1 transaction. I ask for both, had to wait another week, but got it.

Sent it to booking.com who claimed to issue the refund, to be received within 15 working days. Btw I raised a complaint with Monzo for all the communication issues snd received £100 compensation.

Anyways, this was yesterday. Today, I received a message from monzo saying a senior specialist reinvestigated as they received further insight into the scam and fully refunded me. Really odd.

I now need to go back to booking.com to let them know they don't need to refund me and if it's too late I'll need to send it back when I receive it...

[legalfun]

Close