It happens in a flash. You look up a trusted brand online, say, searching for "Air New Zealand" to book a flight.
You click the top result, go through the booking process, and realise only later that you didn't buy from the airline at all. Instead, you booked through a third-party reseller.
Secondary booking sites
Secondary booking sites pay heavily to appear at the top of Google or Bing. They aren’t scams, but they can come with hidden booking fees, rigid cancellation policies, and often with a much higher price.
Fortunately, protecting yourself from this digital detour takes only a few simple habits.
Search engines always put advertisements at the top of the page. Look closely at the small text just above or beside the headline. If it says “Sponsored” or “Ad”, it means a company has paid to be there. Skip past these paid ads until you find the official site you’re looking for.
Before you enter any credit card detail, look at the address bar at the very top of your browser screen.
Make sure the domain name matches the company exactly – for example, www.airnewzealand.co.nz and not a reseller like www.edreams.com. Look for the small padlock icon or the https:// prefix, which guarantees a secure connection. But remember, scammers can secure their sites too, so looking closely at the text itself is your best safeguard.
If you have a handful of websites you use frequently for banking, travel, or insurance, don’t rely on a search engine to get you there every time.
Navigate to the official site once, then bookmark it in your browser.
Next time, a single click will take you safely to the genuine webpage, bypassing the search engine minefield.
