British holidaymakers are being urged to be vigilant for travel fraud, which cost victims millions last summer.

Fresh calls for tourists to stay alert have come after a total of £4.6million was lost between May and August alone and more than 6,450 reports of holiday fraud were made across the financial year, costing more than £15million or an average of £2,372 per victim.

To make sure the equivalent totals are much less this year, Wizz Air travel expert Andra Rado has revealed the top scams to look out for and a devious strategy pickpockets use to discover where tourists keep their cash.

Fake bookings

Rado says: 'Criminals are creating clones of websites like Airbnb and Booking.com and advertising deals and offers on social media.

'The links, offers, and websites look real, so you think you're giving your payment details to the legitimate sites.

'You'll often receive a confirmation email of your booking, so you won't suspect anything until you try and check-in for your flight, or even arrive at your hotel, and they have no record of your booking.'

The travel expert advises holidaymakers to 'always be careful with links that come from social media' and says 'cloned sites will be very difficult to detect.'

He adds: 'There might just be a small change in the URL from the original site that you don’t notice when clicking on a link.

'Verify the offers you’re seeing are correct by manually typing in the legitimate websites address and going through there.'

Pickpocket signs

'Pickpockets often lurk in areas that have signs warning you of their presence,' Rado warns.

'When you see a sign saying “warning: pickpockets operate in this area”, your first instinct is to pat your pockets that contain your valuables like your phone and wallet to make sure they’re still there – but this shows thieves exactly where to look.

'Keep valuables separate from each other so pickpockets can’t get everything in one go and keep bags in front of you rather than behind you.

'Be especially careful on public transport as it’s very easy for people to grab things and jump off the train before you’ve even noticed anything is missing.'

Bracelet scam

'The bracelet scam is common in markets and on beaches,' Rado says.

'Scammers approach tourists and put a friendship bracelet on you, often tied so that the only way they can be removed is by cutting them.

'They then demand you pay for the item that they’ve given you, whether you want it or not – and not only do you have to give them money for an item you didn’t want, but it can also often be a technique used to pick your pockets while you’re distracted.'

He adds: 'Say a firm "no" if someone tries to give you anything in the street, and never let anyone put a bracelet or necklace on you, no matter how friendly they seem.'

Intercepting Twitter complaints

Rado says: 'People often tweet companies with complaints about things like lost luggage, and criminals have started to use this to scam people.

'Using fake customer service Twitter handles, they respond to complaints asking for contact details, and claim that they need to pay for their lost luggage to be sent to them – of course, the luggage never arrives, and they may even ask for more money, claiming that further problems have delayed it.

'No airline would ask for money to be sent in order to return lost luggage. Make sure you get in contact with official customer services with complaints, and to report scams like this.'

Fake petitions

This particular scam is common in 'highly touristy cities', according to Rado who explains: 'You’ll be approached by someone or sometimes a group of people with a clipboard asking you to sign a petition.

'They’re betting on you not being fluent in the language, and can keep talking until you agree to sign, without really knowing what it is - but then they ask for a cash donation.

'They can sometimes be aggressive, demanding that you give them money for their cause, and this can often be a distraction technique to pick your pockets while you’re trying to saying no.

'Just keep walking if someone approaches you asking for signatures, be firm and say no, and keep an eye on your belongings.'

Overcharging taxis

Rado says: 'One of the most common places to get conned when travelling is in a taxi, with scammers claiming that the meter is broken and making up a huge figure when you get to your destination, or the meter going up much faster than it should.

'They’re assuming that you don’t know how much the ride should actually cost so they can charge you as much as they like, so make sure you ask your hotel or a local for a rough idea of how much you should be paying.'

Rado stresses that it's 'not all doom and gloom', though, and highlights the most scam-free destinations.

He says: 'There are many destinations that people claim to feel the safest in, such as Malaga, which has recently been ranked as the second safest city in Spain.

'And a recent study revealed that Budapest, Reykjavik, and Vienna are among the top safest cities in the world, particularly for solo travellers.'

Every house has them - those messy rooms or examples of bad taste that cost you dearly when it comes time to sell.

So whether it's a replacing a conservatory or redesigning the space under the stairs, here's what you can do about them...

The 'naff' conservatory

Usually containing an abandoned exercise bike, cat litter trays and mounds of laundry, nothing puts off a viewer like a badly maintained, cheap conservatory.

In fact, House Buyer Bureau recently published research showing a 'naff' conservatory could knock £15,000 off the value of your house.

The answer is to replace it, possibly with one of the Victorian-style orangeries on the market, remembering to install underfloor heating to keep the room warm in winter and fit glass with a special low emissivity coating to control the heat in summer.

A boring home office

Covid is to blame for this one. Since the pandemic made working from home 'normal', our spare bedrooms have been turned into bland, utilitarian outposts of the office.

Don't stand for it: change that room into a stylish mini-library. Shabby chic is the most popular look, according to Tradebase, the home improvement specialist, so think burgundy walls and heavy rugs.

Put in floor-to-ceiling shelving, but don't fill every shelf. Use spare space for displays of family snaps and mementos — it's the perfect spot for the old school photo.

Put a table with a laptop in the middle of the room and add your favourite comfy armchair next to a standard lamp in the corner. A library ladder will set off the whole look.

The tip under the stairs

It's where the children chuck their school bags, where golf clubs lie forgotten or where the battered spare chairs for the dining table end up.

There's no getting away from it, in most homes 'under the stairs' is a bit of a tip. Yet the area doesn't have to be.

Laura Gibson, 42, put in a bookshelf and seating with cushions in the understairs space at her home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, to make a cosy little snug that she shares with her children, Teddy and Effie, and dog Rufus. 

She even knocked a window space into the wall to ensure there was enough light to read.

'It's so nice to sit here quietly while the rest of the family are buzzing around me,' she says.

A shabby fish pond

Nothing says boring suburbia louder than a goldfish pond. 

Apart from being naff, it can be dangerous for young children and is a constant source of stress. 

Will the fish die when the pond freezes over during an icy spell? Will a heron poach one?

Yet water adds sparkle to a garden, so what to do? Self-contained water features are the answer. 

These take up little space, are easy to install and can be put away in winter. 

They can be solar powered or plugged into the mains electricty — as long as you have an outdoor socket nearby. 

Some can simply be positioned, plugged in and turned on — it's that easy. 

Prices vary, but you can buy a water feature for about £80. 

They mask road noise, improve your air quality and attract wildlife. That sure beats a suburban goldfish pond.

The teeny-weeny garage

Was there ever a more pointless addition to the family home than the integral garage?

According to a survey by the Door And Hardware Federation, three quarters of garages in new-build homes are simply too small for modern cars.

And it is common knowledge that these structures — garages attached to a home — are used as storage. 

Best, then, to turn them into something else: perhaps a man cave, a dining room or a playroom.

Joy Heath, 58, was inspired to convert her double garage by her visit to the Housebuilding and Renovation Show.

The result is a perfectly formed mini-cinema. 

Electricians installed the projector monitor and speakers; a window was blocked off; special materials were used to damp down the sound; and platforms were built for the banks of authentic cinema seating.

There is even a popcorn machine to add flourish to the silver-screen experience. It cost Joy £50,000, but has added easily that much to the value of the house.

'More than that, it has been great fun,' says Joy, who lives in the Cotswolds. 'Every six weeks my friends come around for a cinema and pizza night. The cinema has put a new spin on my social life.'