The item you should NEVER buy at the airport
A TRAVEL expert has revealed the one item you should never buy at the airport.
Lonely Planet’s Fin McCarthy explained why it is the biggest mistake to make when going on holiday.
Travellers often forget something when going on holiday, meaning a last-minute trip to the shops at the airport.
And one of the biggest things to forget is a portable charger, which is a must for keeping your phone and tablets juiced up on a long flight.
Buying it at the airport may not help you however.
Fin said: “Do not make the mistake of buying one at the airport, only to realize when you board that it too needs to be charged.”
You need to keep your phone charged at airports for two reasons, both of which could see you banned from your flight.
According to the UK Government website, airport security can confiscate your phone if the battery is dead and it can’t be turned on.
Not only that, but lots of airlines now let you have your boarding pass on your phone – which isn’t much good if it’s dead.
While it can be tempted to use public chargers, experts have warned travellers against this.
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According to Travel And Leisure, travellers are being targeted with a scam called ‘juice jacking,’ where hackers drain information from your phone while you use a public USB charger.
A warning from the LA District Attorney’s Office said of the scam: “Criminals load malware onto charging stations or cables they leave plugged in at the stations so they may infect the phones and other electronic devices of unsuspecting users.
“The malware may lock the device or export data and passwords directly to the scammer.”
Caleb Barlow, Vice President of X-Force Threat Intelligence at IBM Security also told Forbes that to avoid this, you can buy a gadget called a Juice-Jack Defender which lets you charge your phone but stops any data passing through the USB port.
Travellers have also been warned against borrowing phone chargers from front desk when staying at hotels.
This is because you don’t know where the charger has come from and whether it’s good quality – and knock-off chargers can ruin the batteries in your phone.
Here are some of the best wireless chargers you can buy ahead of your next holiday.