The best advice is that if an offer sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Look for these red flags:
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Check Scams: The most common scam we currently see involves some variation of the scammer giving a check to the victim, and asking the victim to send money back to the scammer through some other medium (Venmo, gift cards, etc). Scammers will use different pretenses for why they need the victim to return money, but they're always taking advantage of the fact that in the US, checks take 3-5 days to clear. For example: A scammer posts a job opening for remote work, and "hires" the victim when they apply. The scammer sends the victim a $2,000 "start-up check" to purchase office supplies for the job. Once the victim receives it, the scammer tells them there was an error, the check was only supposed to be for $800, and the victim needs to return $1,200 immediately by Cash App or be fired. The victim cashes the check and sees $2,000 pending in their account, and sends $1,200 to the scammer. Three days later, the check is returned for insufficient funds (the check was fake), and the victim has a negative balance of -$1,200. As the scammers are often from other countires, US law enforcement has limited tools to get the money back.
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Be wary of offers that require you to act fast: Scammers may push you to act quickly before your opportunity flies by or someone else takes advantage of the offer. When a company excessively stresses the limited time offer it may mean the company is trying to get a financial commitment from you before you have time to shop around and make sure the company is legit.
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Read the fine print: You should understand a company´s cancellation policy before making a commitment. A company might require that consumer disputes are only handled by arbitration in a state other than Nebraska. Although you do not anticipate your trip ending in a legal dispute, you never know what could happen. Once you take the trip it will be too late to argue that the cancellation policy is unfair.
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Know your rights: You should be able to cancel a charter package without penalty if a major change was made by the operator. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation major changes include changing a departure or return date, the destination, or the hotel to one not named in the contract. Raising a package price more than 10 percent may also qualify as grounds for cancellation. Go to the Federal Trade Commission´s website for more information about avoiding scams at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt029.shtm.