Hotel data breaches and the dangers they pose

Victims of hotel data breaches can be entitled to claim compensation. We can offer No Win, No Fee representation for eligible clients as a leading firm of data breach lawyers.

There are several ways in which criminals could exploit data exposed from a hotel. This can have a significant impact on the victims, and it is important for people to know their rights.

Here is some guidance about how we may be able to help you.

How hotel data breaches lead to problems for customers

Hotel data breaches can be common because this is a sector that cybercriminals target. Both personal data and financial information can be targeted, as well as sensitive information like travel documents and passport information.

In short, all this can be used to steal money from innocent victims, and it can happen in a variety of ways.

These include:

• Direct theft from people’s accounts when payment card data is exposed;
• ID theft and fraud where financial products could be taken out in your name when personal and ID documentation is compromised;
• Scammers exploiting personal data to contact victims, pose as legitimate organisations, and then convince them to hand over more information.

The latter one is why we always say that no data breach is too small to worry about. Even a name and an address for someone staying at a particular hotel at a certain time could be enough to exploit. Scammers could pose as staff from the hotel and use the data they have on you to convince you that they’re the real deal. At the end of this article, we will touch on a recent example of this and how it can work.

What can victims of this kind of breach claim for?

Victims of hotel data breaches could be entitled to claim compensation for:

• Distress caused by the loss of control of personal information; and/or
• Losses and expenses, which could include money stolen.

You could be eligible to claim for either or both the above. Even if you were lucky to not have lost any money, you can still claim for just the distress alone, as the GDPR can entitle you to.

Data breach compensation amounts can be determined by factors such as the nature of the data exposed, and how this has affected you. For free and no-obligation advice about your options for a breach like this, please don’t hesitate to contact the team here today.

A recent example

Hotel data breaches can be a lucrative business for criminals. In a recent example of this kind of cybercrime that may have arisen from a data breach, the Ritz London reportedly confirmed that there may have been a data breach involving their “food and beverage reservation system”. It is understood that the details for some customers may have been compromised, and it appears that criminals have already been making use of potentially exposed data.

It appears that scammers have been contacting guests with precise information about their bookings. This has allowed them to then try and scam people by asking for them to confirm their credit card details for their reservation. It has also been reported that the scammers have been using call ID spoofing to get away with posing as employees of The Ritz.

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