I am the victim of a holiday booking scam, please help...

Simon Calder answers your questions on holiday scams, his favourite US city, human rights in Saudi Arabia and the cheapest way to leave Lyon

Fraudsters continue to operate with impunity on social media (Alamy/PA)

Q I was in dispute with Loveholidays over changes to the holiday I booked. While seeking written confirmation of a verbal agreement, I responded to an unrelated tweet from the company. I was contacted by someone claiming to be a Loveholidays representative. They asked me for a phone number and then contacted me on WhatsApp. I was told the best way to be compensated was to set up an account on WorldRemit. But after following the instructions from someone who said he was “Keith from customer service” I discovered I had been tricked into paying £100 to a mobile account. By the time it dawned on me it was a scam it was too late – the money had gone. Is there any redress?

Tracey M

A What an extremely upsetting experience. I have sought to warn travellers of the large number of scams being perpetrated by criminals masquerading as travel firms on X (formerly Twitter). They typically target customers of companies that are seeing a large number of complaints; last summer they preyed on easyJet passengers after at least 180,000 journeys were cancelled. I was one of them, and so I was in a position to investigate how the crooks work.