McAfee: 1 in 3 travelers faced scam

McAfee said on May 19 that one in three travelers had faced a travel scam as higher summer travel costs pushed consumers toward riskier booking behavior. The cybersecurity company released the findings in a statement distributed by Business Wire and carried by Morningstar. McAfee said the survey was fielded in March 2026 and focused on travel plans over the next 12 months, scam experiences and digital habits while traveling. The company paired that consumer survey with McAfee Labs research on travel-brand impersonation. ### What exactly did McAfee say it found? McAfee said more than one in three Americans had encountered a travel-related cyberthreat, and 41% of those affected lost money. The company said those losses often exceeded $500. In the May 19 release, McAfee said rising prices and time pressure were leading travelers to take more risks when booking trips. (morningstar.com) The March 2026 survey covered travel intentions, scam experiences and digital behavior, according to the release carried by Morningstar. McAfee did not present the results as government data or an industrywide audit; it described them as proprietary and consumer research. (mcafee.com) ### Which scams are travelers being warned about? McAfee listed fake travel deals, fake booking confirmations, fake airline or hotel websites, payment requests outside official platforms, QR-code scams, customer-service impersonation and AI-generated listings among the main risks. The company said scam attempts often relied on urgency, unusually low prices, unfamiliar websites or requests to move payment off-platform. (morningstar.com) Tripadvisor was the most impersonated travel brand in McAfee Labs findings, the company said, appearing nearly three times as often as the next most targeted brand. McAfee said that scale of impersonation was making it harder for consumers to distinguish legitimate offers from fraudulent ones. (mcafee.com) ### Why did McAfee link the warning to summer travel costs? McAfee said summer demand was rising as travelers compared airfares on mobile devices and rushed to lock in deals. In its blog post, the company described a booking environment in which climbing prices and countdown timers could pressure consumers into clicking links or paying before checking whether an offer was real. (morningstar.com) The company’s release said increasing costs and time pressure were creating new opportunities for fraud. That framing came from McAfee, not from an outside regulator or law-enforcement agency in the materials reviewed. ### What did McAfee tell travelers to do before paying? (mcafee.com) McAfee advised travelers to book through official airline, hotel or travel-platform channels and to be skeptical of heavily discounted offers. The company also said consumers should inspect website addresses closely, avoid payment methods such as wire transfers or cryptocurrency when a platform normally handles payment directly, and verify booking messages before clicking links. (morningstar.com) Public Wi‑Fi was another focus. McAfee said travelers using open networks should protect their connections with a virtual private network, or VPN, and avoid entering sensitive payment or login details on unsecured connections. ### Where was this published, and what comes next? Morningstar carried the Business Wire version of McAfee’s statement on May 19, and McAfee listed the same announcement in its newsroom that day. (mcafee.com) The company also published a companion blog post with examples of scam types, warning signs and consumer-protection steps. McAfee’s next step, based on the materials published May 19, is continued distribution of those booking and verification tips through its newsroom and consumer blog. Travelers looking for the company’s full guidance can find the press release in the McAfee newsroom and the longer advisory post on McAfee’s website. (mcafee.com) (morningstar.com)