"We were in shock. I said, 'No, it can't be'."
An elderly Leicester couple lost more than £2,500 after falling victim to an online travel scam they only discovered at the airport check-in desk.
Dinesh and Shashikala Jansari had spent eight years planning a two-month trip to visit relatives in Gujarat, believing they had booked through Expedia.
But when they arrived at Heathrow Airport packed and ready to fly, they discovered their tickets were invalid.
Shashikala said: “My husband was just standing there, we were shocked. I just thought, what shall I do?”
The couple, who moved from Uganda more than 50 years ago, are experienced travellers.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, they regularly arranged trips through a travel agent. This time, hoping to save money, Dinesh searched online for a cheaper deal.
He believed he was dealing with Expedia but had unknowingly accessed a fake website. His enquiry was moved to a WhatsApp conversation with an account called Fly Expedia.
The scammer requested a direct bank transfer of £2,502. Because the payment was not made by credit card, statutory protections did not apply.
Shashikala said: “It was a very good deal. And the name said Expedia, which my husband had heard about.
“I don’t know how [the scammer] got his number, but he started chatting on WhatsApp, and my husband booked with them.”
The couple booked a separate coach to the airport, which was cancelled at short notice. Their son then drove them from Leicester to London.
At the airline counter, staff struggled to locate their booking.
“When we reached Heathrow and went to the counter, the girl was trying to find [our booking], and she couldn’t.
“She called her seniors. I was thinking, ‘What are they doing, why is it taking so long?’
“And then she looked at the ticket my husband had printed, and she told us very nicely, ‘These are fake tickets’.
“We were in shock. I said, ‘No, it can’t be’.”
Airline staff informed them they could purchase new tickets for around £5,000 each. The cost was unaffordable.
Their son had already driven as far as Milton Keynes when he had to turn back to collect them.
Shashikala added: “I just started panicking and my husband was very stressed. We were shocked.”
The scam was reported to Action Fraud.
The couple also contacted their bank. They have since been told it is unlikely their money can be recovered because the transfer was authorised.
Despite the setback, the Jansaris travelled to Ahmedabad a week later, booking through a Leicester-based travel agent.
Shashikala said: “The bank says that it’s not their fault because we transferred the money, so I don’t know if we will get the money back or not, but we wanted to go to India because my sister is not well, so we booked through a travel agent and went.
“But it was a bad experience.
“Scammers are very clever. I don’t know how they do it, but they use old people like us.
“I would advise people to ask the younger generation to help them – scammers are everywhere.”
A spokesperson for Expedia said it was “sorry” to hear of the couple’s experience.
He added: “All legitimate transactions with Expedia should take place through our official website or mobile app.
“Travellers should never receive a message like this from our team.”
“Anyone who does experience this should contact their banking institution to address any concerns about payments they may have made.”
Shashikala has since attended fraud awareness sessions run by Healthy Living at Rushey Mead Recreation Centre in Leicester.
The sessions advise residents to double-check who they are dealing with online, use strong passwords, and rely only on trusted websites.
Bharat Kanabar, of Healthy Living, said: “AI [artificial intelligence] is a big topic in itself, people are worried about hacking into their Facebook accounts, mimicking family voices saying ‘mum and dad I need money’.
“It’s a big area that people need to be educated in.”
Leicestershire Police fraud team supervisor Nicole McIntyre warned that fraud and cybercrime now account for around half of reported crime in England and Wales.
“They use the technology to pretend to be someone else – there’s a lot of software called spoofing software, which they can use to pretend to be presenting as different phone numbers, different text message numbers, and then they share them links that will only work for that person that go off to different websites.
“Go away and ask some trusted family and friends for some advice. Check with the real person.
“If they’re asking for money, go and check with the genuine person and make sure you’re feeling happy and confident before you transfer any of your hard-earned money.”
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