- Single mum from Manchester area lost more than £2,500
- Fake holiday firm had page on Facebook as part of Disney scam.
- Bags were already packed when family discovered they had been scammed
- We issue tips on how to avoid holiday scams
A single mum who scrimped and saved to take her three daughters to Disney was left heartbroken when she found out that the holiday offer was a scam- just two days before they were due to fly out.
The girls were left in floods of tears when cruel scammers from a fake pulled the plug on the once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The family’s clothes were all packed ready for Disneyland Paris and there was nothing they could do but unpack their suitcases.
“They started crying, and I was on the edge of crying but I had to not show my emotions to my girls, who were so down,” said the woman, who is a teacher. “They were very excited, they’d told all their friends at school, and now they were not going.
“They said ‘mum, can you do something?’ but there was nothing I could do because I’d spent all my money.”
The 45-year-old, who lives near Manchester, paid £2585 to take her daughters, then aged nine, 12 and 18, her niece and her mother to Disneyland in October, last year, after seeing a holiday advert on Facebook.
The trip was supposed to be a special birthday treat for her youngest daughter, who would turn 10 in Paris.
She said: “My youngest was going to be 10 in October, so I asked her what she wanted to do. She said ‘mum, I know you don’t really have much money, but if I could spend my birthday in Paris, I’d be happy’, so I said ‘OK’. If I started paying monthly, we should be able to do that.
“It wasn’t easy at all, and I had to cut a lot of things to give my girls something for them to enjoy.”
But the dream turned sour when the fake firm messaged her less than 48 hours before their departure to say the flights, and therefore the holiday, had been cancelled.
Now she has turned to National Fraud Helpline solicitors to recover her money from NatWest Bank and Monzo.
Adam Beach, a lawyer at National Fraud Helpline solicitors, said: ‘This is a heartbreaking scam. It never ceases to amaze us how cruel scammers can be.
‘We advise anyone booking a holiday after spotting an advert online to be very careful. Fake holiday websites are some of the most convincing scams that we see.’
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was convinced by the fake holiday firm’s Facebook page, which showed images of happy holidaymakers travelling all over the world, and contacted them in March last year.
“I was looking for someone experienced that knows how to arrange the flights, hotel and tickets to the park,” she said. “I didn’t want to take my girls there and them not enjoy it.”
She was given a number to message on WhatsApp, and the fake holiday firm representative arranged a payment schedule of a £300 deposit followed by six monthly payments of £380.83.
The first two payments were sent from her Monzo account, with the rest from NatWest.
She was emailed an invoice that showed confirmation of the hotel, Disneyland day passes, and flight times.
“It looked genuine because everything I needed was in the invoice, and it was on headed paper,” she said. “I had no idea they were scammers.”
On a Thursday three days before the supposed flight time, she contacted the fake holiday firm to ask for the flight tickets, and was told they would be with her 48 hours before the flight.
But at 8pm on the Friday evening, he sent a message saying ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t able to book your flight for you, so we’ve cancelled your holiday’.
Close to tears, she said: “I couldn’t believe something like that could happen. I’m very organised so I’d already packed our things. I called him and said I could see lots of flights available for the Sunday morning, but he said they were too expensive and there was nothing he could do.
“I was devastated, and in a very depressed mood. When you can’t afford something and you put all your money into it, it’s wrong that people just think they can take this money you don’t really have off you.”
The fake holiday firm even promised to refund the money within four weeks but, after chasing them several times, they stopped responding and eventually blocked the victim.
When she went on the Trustpilot review site, she realised she was not alone.
“I realised we had been scammed along with a lot of other people,” she said. “One lady even said they’d got to the airport and been told that nothing was booked.”
In the absence of a refund, the woman was unable to book a replacement holiday, and the girls are still waiting to go to Disneyland.
“I told my youngest girl last year we could go this year when she will be 11,” she said. “But I just said that to make them feel better, because this has knocked me down, I can’t afford it. It won’t happen this year unless I can get my money back.”
National Fraud Helpline solicitors is hoping to recover the money from the bank.
“It would be the best day of my life, because I would be able to do what I’ve not been able to do for my girls,” she said. “They had that dream for a long time – so just to experience it would make me very happy.”
We have placed this story in the media as a warning to others: Yahoo News!
Find out more about: How to avoid Holiday Scams.
Have you lost money to a scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.