We're only weeks away from the start of the holiday season. In fact, people are already starting to take off for some summer sun. One PlayPennies mum, Clarissa (mum to two lively lads aged 4 and 2) is packing her bags today. She's taking advantage of the what might be the last chance to take a term time holiday without being fined, yelled at by the school or visited by a truancy officer!

In the coming weeks we'll be covering all sorts of ways to save money while on holiday. But to kick this off, I'm looking at the first, most important way to spend less when it comes to your holiday. Don't get scammed.

According to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), UK holiday makes lose an estimated £3.5 billion each year to scams. What I found scary though is that the OFT also found that if you are scammed, you're 30% more likely to fall for another scam in the following year. Here's how to avoid being one of them.