Possible compromise of major booking site

[Morticia]

I'm asking you this because the major booking site knows nothing about this. (Tech support, supervisors) Do you know if your property is listed on a website (yourstate) hotels 24.com? There is no search feature, you have to scroll thru the list of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 star hotels (alpha) to find your place. I'm listed as a 3 star so judge your place accordingly.
If your place is listed do you know if this is connected to any major booking site? This just popped up as a google alert with my place listed front and center. All of the details are from MBS (major booking site). The information, however, is wrong. They've got all my photos from MBS and all of the calendar info fits. Plus, the pop ups when you click for more info show MBS's website info, but the actual booking page where they collect your cc info is not the MBS's page. Depending on what hotel you click on, you get referred to several different websites purportedly in Europe.
I called MBS and they couldn't replicate what I'm seeing because they weren't 'allowed' by the site to make a reservation.
I think every state and a lot of cities are listed. I'm not calling out the MBS until I have more info. Maybe this has been out there forever and I just got the alert. But, because the MBS said they have no idea and they've sent it off to another division to check, I'm concerned. I know this MBS owns a lot of websites, this may just be one of them.

 

[gillumhouse]

It has all the earmarks of one of those reservation scams. I do not take cc numbers online but that would not stop one being set up that did. Sigh

 

[Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage]

I am not listed on this site...... Post Office and restaurant a few doors down the street are....... Oh lucky them ; )

 

[OnTheShore]

At least for the Maine site, there is a page that lists all of the hotels they have in the state (300+), and you can use your browser's searh function to look for your place there. We are not there, probably because we are not with any Major Booking Sites.
Interesting to read the "Abou Ust" page - they go on at seeming great lengths about their security measures, using "special reliable booking channels" to contact the hotels so that there is no possibility of personal information being disclosed...

 

[Arks]

Ha ha ha. It lists just one 5 star hotel in my state, and it's the chain hotel in my own little town, the hotel that rates 3.2 out of 5 bubbles on TA.
I suspect it's looking at my IP address and customizing the offerings accordingly. I'm happy I'm not listed there.

 

[OnTheShore]

Ha ha ha. It lists just one 5 star hotel in my state, and it's the chain hotel in my own little town, the hotel that rates 3.2 out of 5 bubbles on TA.
I suspect it's looking at my IP address and customizing the offerings accordingly. I'm happy I'm not listed there..

I see the same thing for your state, Arks. 627 hotels listed, more than half 2-stars....

 

[gillumhouse]

I am not there but a very nice place downstate is. I will have to give her a courtesy call.

 

[Garden_Pix_Inn]

Probably "scraped" (copied). Ask them to take it down--be aggressive about it.

 

[Generic]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action.

 

[Copperhead]

Thanks for the heads up! I am thankful my buz name falls way down in the alphabet, took far longer than any real guest would go to search this site to find me.
Lots of miss or old information and pictures dating back 6-7 yrs. States that we have things we do not, or are miss-representing them.
They could be a 3rd party affiliate to one of the OTA's but gather data from other sources as well. - Just found reference to book ing dot com when checking info under 'see credit card details' when trying to book.

 

[Copperhead]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.

 

[Generic]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.
.

Yes, they are. The agreement says that they can't lift the entire site, they have to have their own descriptions.

 

[Copperhead]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.
.

Yes, they are. The agreement says that they can't lift the entire site, they have to have their own descriptions.
.

Let me rephrase my earlier statement:
Since they are using photos they found of my property (elsewhere on the web) dating back to 2006-7 and have rewritten the description of what we provide to the point of miss-representing our place, they are not violating the affiliate agreement as you state as they are not using Booking.com's description or pics.
BUT they are miss-representing businesses that have an agreement with Booking and Booking should have an obligation to those businesses to assure any 3rd party affiliate does not miss-represent them.

 

[Morticia]

When I contacted MBS last night they said 'oh, that's just for your state, that has nothing to do with us.' I kept repeating their name AND links to their website come up when the guest clicks links for more info about credit card details. I explained, for over thirty minutes, that if someone is deliberately linking to relevant pages (info only) on their site and then the guest is entering data into a site that is skimming credit card info THEY (MBS) are on the hook as none of the info directs the guest to MY site.
If you find your name, please contact them thru all means possible. They MIGHT do something IF enough people complain. Otherwise, I seriously think they don't care.
Not to mention, if they are legitimate (a reseller as Jon said), the info is wrong. You don't get 2 double beds in every room. We're not 5 minutes from the airport in the Bahamas. (I wish!)

 

[Morticia]

I just tried to make a rez. When the cc details are filled in it does access the secure.booking.com page. I sent an email to the company in 'Paris, the France' telling them to remove the info from their site. Saying I did not authorize it and it is incorrect. Not that anything will happen.

 

[Generic]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.
.

Yes, they are. The agreement says that they can't lift the entire site, they have to have their own descriptions.
.

Let me rephrase my earlier statement:
Since they are using photos they found of my property (elsewhere on the web) dating back to 2006-7 and have rewritten the description of what we provide to the point of miss-representing our place, they are not violating the affiliate agreement as you state as they are not using Booking.com's description or pics.
BUT they are miss-representing businesses that have an agreement with Booking and Booking should have an obligation to those businesses to assure any 3rd party affiliate does not miss-represent them.
.

In that case, booking can cut them off for having the wrong information... because it looks bad for them and for us.

 

[Morticia]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.
.

Yes, they are. The agreement says that they can't lift the entire site, they have to have their own descriptions.
.

Let me rephrase my earlier statement:
Since they are using photos they found of my property (elsewhere on the web) dating back to 2006-7 and have rewritten the description of what we provide to the point of miss-representing our place, they are not violating the affiliate agreement as you state as they are not using Booking.com's description or pics.
BUT they are miss-representing businesses that have an agreement with Booking and Booking should have an obligation to those businesses to assure any 3rd party affiliate does not miss-represent them.
.

In that case, booking can cut them off for having the wrong information... because it looks bad for them and for us.
.

I emailed booking and told them to remove my info from that site. I guess if they do nothing I report the site to Google for stealing my photos and pretending to represent me.

 

[undersea]

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
Make a complaint to Booking about this particular website violating the following rule...
"Black Hat" (also called spamdexing) means any attempt to redirect search results to particular target pages in a fashion or manner that is in violation of the Spamming Regulations. Black Hat SEO tactics include: keyword stuffing, hidden text and links, doorway and cloaked pages, link farming and blog comment spam."
He's basically doing "link farming"
The other thing is, unless it's a BOOKING microsite, his look, feel and descriptions must differ from those on BOOKING. If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.
We recently caught someone using BOOKING's program and making videos and spamming YOUTUBE... we showed booking what rule their violated and asked them to take action..

It appears to me that this is someone who is using the affiliate program for BOOKING.
If the description and pictures are exactly the same, he's violating his user agreement.

Well in my case they are NOT braking the user agreement by using the same pics & description.
The pics date back almost 10 yrs in some cases. Descriptions are miss-representing what I actually provide.
I will be submitting my complaint to Booking both online and through my Rep.
.

Yes, they are. The agreement says that they can't lift the entire site, they have to have their own descriptions.
.

Let me rephrase my earlier statement:
Since they are using photos they found of my property (elsewhere on the web) dating back to 2006-7 and have rewritten the description of what we provide to the point of miss-representing our place, they are not violating the affiliate agreement as you state as they are not using Booking.com's description or pics.
BUT they are miss-representing businesses that have an agreement with Booking and Booking should have an obligation to those businesses to assure any 3rd party affiliate does not miss-represent them.
.

In that case, booking can cut them off for having the wrong information... because it looks bad for them and for us.
.

I emailed booking and told them to remove my info from that site. I guess if they do nothing I report the site to Google for stealing my photos and pretending to represent me.
.

Right. It is copyright violation.

 

[Morticia]

Got a call from the MBS today. This series of websites do not belong to any of their affiliates. (Again, this one claimed this is just a website directed at hotels in my state. She didn't 'get' this same website exists for every state and has all of their info on it.) They do not accept that their info was hijacked and that guest info is at risk. They won't intercede for me because they are not me. They say they cannot intercede for me with a website that seems to have stolen all my info from them.
I explained, again, I will not be responsible for any compromised guest data that is entered on that site.
She asked me to wait for the owner of the site to 'reach out to me'. (Can we FINALLY agree that is an awful phrase and retire it?)
Anyway, I explained my next move was contacting Google and filing a a complaint. She didn't sound too happy with that but hey, she won't be there next week anyway.

 

[Lee2014]

I hope you can get it fixed. I didn't see us.