Scams in the travel sector are rising dramatically. So much that a study conducted observed that the total scam losses to travel agents will rise by nineteen per cent to twenty-five billion by 2021.

The study suggests that online travel industry scams are anticipated to lose $11 million, a twenty-four per cent rise over 2019, with &3.2 billion in direct losses and around $8 billion in indirect losses. This is a large figure, particularly in the travel scams where travel industry scams margins are significantly thin, making sure many sales to cover the loss to scams.”

In brief, online travel agencies are at stake from professional and opportunistic scams and need to actively guard against both.



 

What Types of Scams in the Travel Agency

A common scenario is a user that has developed a fake platform and efficiently uses stolen or forged credit card information to steal confidential information of travellers. Others collect legitimate information on false websites to use fresh information to defraud legitimate online travel agencies. Other situations are simply imposters collecting stolen data from the dark platform and striving to buy travellers’ data.

Account Takeovers

The most occurring type of scam in the travel industry is a takeover of a traveller’s account. This is known as account takeover. The rising travel sector, like all e-commerce industries, is attempting to have users store transaction data against their accounts in order to make the transaction much more quickly. The uncertainty of this account being accessed by a fraudster is clear with drastic monetary and repute loss.

When imposters are able to acquire entire traveller data, they typically try to imitate those travellers for online purchase scams. If only slight data is available, they develop synthetic accounts by consolidating information from various cardholders.

Booking with False & Stolen Credit Card Details

As a recent study suggests stolen credit card details can be sold for as inexpensively as $14, it’s no shock that imposters use them all the time. The tickets purchased are then resold on dark web platforms, or too in the open to unusual users.

Ticket Cancellations to acquire Flight Credits

Airports drastically support credit to fascinate new travellers. Imposters deceive the system with false credit cards and remove them. This can be resold or buy genuine tickets to be resold later.

Fraudulent Travel Agencies

Imposters create fake travel agencies, and then either buy tickets or place holds on the travel with false credit card information. Travellers pay the entire amount for these fake tickets only to discover out that their airfare is fake or has been declared fraudulent. When they attempt to ask for reimbursement of the amount, the false agency would not be there any longer.

Identity Theft

When you travel, you are at a stake in identity theft. For instance, imposters might choose your pocket and use your personal data to open new credit card accounts or empty your bank accounts. Digital check-ins offer users the power to get rid of the troubles of physical booking and over-the-account transactions. While apps for various reasons are a powerful consumer engagement mechanism, it is enabling imposters to use false identities and acquire the personal information of other legitimate travelers.

Risk Mitigation and Fraud-Fighting in Travel

A rising amount of travel industries are using facial recognition solutions to authenticate the identity of their travelers. As travel industries are usually used for huge travel frauds such as identity scams, money laundering, and account takeover. The documents are missing their ability which implies the travel industries to adopt technological advancements for traveler screening. Traveler security and their travel experience are similarly important and facial recognition satisfy both these requirements. It boosts traveler experience, limiting the time consumed for safety procedures.


Given these significant benefits of facial recognition technology, it’s estimated that 95% of airports will adopt this technology by 2023. But this is not the finish of the story, since the travel industry is lacking this technology during the traveller flow in the airport.

Conclusion:

With the advancement in technology, not only the corporate sector is enjoying extraordinary advantages, but malicious activities have significantly risen as well. The travel sector has automated the processes but the ineffective verification measures are not assisting in keeping travellers safe. Robust security is a need for the dire, and facial recognition is one of the precautionary measures that the travelling sector can employ. It checks for malicious attacks, identity theft, and fake identities in real-time. Eventually, there is no chance for imposters to leave a country after following their evil plans or deceive travel industries for any advantages.