In a video message he shares online, the 'X-Men: Apocalypse' star reveals he almost lost nearly $13,000 while trying to book a holiday in Tenerife, Spain for his family.
- Oct 30, 2018
AceShowbiz - James McAvoy was almost scammed out of nearly $13,000 (£10,000) while planning a family vacation to Spain.
The 39-year-old actor, who shares son Brendan with ex-wife Anne-Marie Duff, took to Instagram to share videos of himself warning others not to fall for the con.
"Hello, there! I'm James McAvoy. I have just avoided being scammed through a cyber scamming scheme online and I'm just making this video to draw your attention to it," he said in the video, explaining that he had been attempting to book a trip to the The Ritz-Carlton, Abama, in Tenerife, Spain.
Telling fans the website he found was "actually better" than the hotel's real homepage, James added: "Don't use them. They nearly took 10 grand off of me, which is a ton of money. Some guy called Joaquin emailing me back and forth, (I) nearly made a bank transfer. Very convincing."
"Their website is actually better than the Ritz-Carlton's website. It's extremely convincing, replete with a phone number, stuff like that. Just very, very convincing."
According to James, he had filled out a booking form and was then asked to "make a payment via a bank transfer after sending them a picture" of his passport.
At that point, the "Split" star wasn't alarmed, explaining: "That's something that I've done before in the past which seems legit. Paying by bank transfer instead of credit card or check actually seems like a safer way to do it. You also get a 10 percent discount, they say by doing a bank transfer. Again, more incentive to get excited about it."
But this "incentive" made James think twice about going ahead with the transfer, and he decided to ask a travel expert for advice.
"I just thought the deal seemed too good to be true so I double-checked it with a travel agent and it was, of course, a tenth of the price that it should be," he said. "So I'm not going on that holiday!".
Following the near-miss, James informed The Ritz-Carlton of the incident, adding "They know now".
