A recent survey from McAfee Labs shows 34% of Americans have decreased trust in online travel booking, due partly to AI and deepfakes. McAfee Head of Threat Research Abhishek Karnik joins Wealth! to discuss the survey and how travelers can protect themselves ahead of their summer vacation plans.

"As people gear up for travel this year, we're seeing 1 in 4 Americans falling victim to scams," Karnik explains. He urges travelers to be cautious when online listings look too good to be true and says always to check if you are on official websites instead of an impersonation site.

But booking is not the only area where travelers should exercise caution. Karnik explains that there may be travel agent impersonators who will try to scam travelers while they are on vacation. These impersonators usually target tourists, so Karnik encourages everyone to research and avoid paying money up-front — especially when asked for cryptocurrency or gift card payments.

As the summer travel season heats up, Karnik's biggest piece of advice is to "make sure you're using trusted websites, trusted applications in your phone. Using VPN, for example, when you're hopping onto free Wi-Fi is equally important because these are the different sort of vantage points that scammers are utilizing to take your money away."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl