A Lancashire couple posed for holiday snaps with a parrot, despite claiming to Jet2holidays that they were suffering with a gastric illness at the time. The pair have been convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and ordered to pay Jet2holidays almost £30,000 after making the bogus claim. A Manchester court ruled that Martin and Lindsey […]
Category: Consumer News
Four convicted over fake holiday sickness claim
A family of fraudsters who faked sickness while on holiday, including feigning their children’s illness, have been convicted of contempt of court. Michael Jameson, 43, Claire Weir, 35, Jane Weir, 38, and Janet Weir, 63, of Liverpool made fraudulent sickness claims against Jet2holidays – asking for more than £45,000 in compensation and solicitors’ costs. But […]
Eurostar customer accounts hacked in data breach
Eurostar customers’ login passwords have been re-set after it detected attempts to break into an unspecified number of accounts. The high speed Channel Tunnel rail service said it had notified those whose accounts had been targeted. Other passengers will be told they have been blocked the next time they try to log in and will […]
Agency owners prosecuted in multi-million pound Hajj fraud
Three men behind a travel firm have been prosecuted for a multi-million pound fraud where they falsely claimed to be licensed to sell package trips to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. Leicester-based Al Shafqat Hajj fraudulently used stationary containing the symbols of both Atol and Iata in its business specialising in selling trips to the […]
BA says a further 185k cards possibly hit in cyber attack
International Airlines Group (ICAG.L) said an investigation into the theft of customers’ data at its British Airways unit showed hackers may have stolen the personal information of a further 185,000 customers. British Airways apologised in September after the credit card details of hundreds of thousands of its customers were stolen over a two-week period in […]
Cathay Pacific reveals major data hack
The personal data of up to 9.4 million Cathay Pacific passengers has been accessed in the latest security breach to hit the aviation industry. The Hong Kong-based carrier revealed that “unauthorised access” had been obtained to some of its i formation system. Passport numbers, email addresses and 403 expired credit card details were among the […]
Travel insurance fraud to be highlighted in TV documentary
More than a million viewers are expected to watch BBC1’s Claimed and Shamed probe into travel insurance fraud today. CEGA Special Investigations will feature in series ten of the show at 11am on Thursday. Head of technical claims Simon Cook, a regular contributor to the programme, will educate viewers about the severity of submitting fraudulent […]
UK trade praised for action against fake sickness claims
The UK ambassador to Spain has praised the UK travel industry for co-operating to help stamp out bogus gastric illness complaints by British holidaymakers. The issue tarnished the reputation of British tourists to the country, Simon Manley told the Abta Travel Convention in Seville. However, action to abolish false illness claims in a country that […]
Cyber attack at Bristol Airport
Bristol Airport has blamed a ‘speculative’ cyber attack for the failure of its flight display screens over two days. Although the airport said there was no disruption to flights, some passengers complained on social media of baggage delays and lack of communication. Extra staff were drafted in and had to resort to writing flight times […]
Police in Europe Tie Card Fraud to People-Smuggling Gang
Coordinated police raids in Germany and Sweden have resulted in the arrest of two individuals suspected of running a cyber fraud gang that used stolen payment card data to book hundreds of airline and train tickets to help smuggle people from the Middle East into Europe. The EU’s law enforcement intelligence agency Europol, which helped […]
Cold calling ban to reduce fake holiday sickness claims
Abta predicts the government ban on cold calls will reduce the number of fraudulent holiday sickness claims made against tour operators. The new measures prohibiting nuisance calls came into force over the weekend. People will now be given the choice to opt in to receiving calls offering to settle personal injury claims. Previously, people had […]
Cause of BA website hack found
A cyber security firm claims to have discovered a malicious script injected into the British Airways website, which could be the cause of the data hack that affected 380,000 customer transactions. BA said it was unable to comment on a BBC report that said a RiskIQ researcher analysed code from the airline’s website and app […]
Firms not fully alert to dangers of cyber crime
Ben Dickinson, cyber security consultant for technology giant ABB, said the pace of change in the way people work and increasingly sophisticated methods of hacking were a recipe for potential trouble. While some companies are on top of the need to protect their operations and employees, others are naive to the dangers or unwilling to […]
Travel pass fraudsters busted after £50k sham
A couple produced and sold hundreds of fake bus and train passes in a £50,000 fraud, a court heard. But the racket was rumbled by railway officials as the passes were too wide for new ticket machines at stations. Police who raided the Wolverhampton home of Steve Taylor found bundles of counterfeit tickets and passes […]
British Airways data breach
British Airways’s boss has apologised for what he says was a sophisticated breach of the firm’s security systems, and has promised compensation. Alex Cruz told the BBC that hackers carried out a “sophisticated, malicious criminal attack” on its website. The airline said personal and financial details of customers making or changing bookings had been compromised. […]
Con artists steal more than £7million from timeshare owners
Callous con artists are targeting people who have already been a victim of timeshare fraud to steal more of their cash, it was claimed today. Victims of ‘timeshare recovery fraud’ across Britain reported losing a total of more than £7million this year between January and July, according to Action Fraud. The average loss was £14,000 […]
Thousands affected in Air Canada mobile app security breach
Thousands of Air Canada passengers’ personal details are suspected to have been accessed in a data breach of the airline’s mobile app. Users who had entered their passport details have been warned that they may have had data stolen. The airline said it has now adopted improved password guidelines. Air Canada said: “There are approximately […]
Fresh warning over fake holiday sickness claims
A fresh warning has been issued to solicitors over false holiday sickness claims. Law firm regulator the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has reminded them of their responsibilities when handling holiday illness claims. The SRA currently has 18 cases under investigation involving solicitors and false holiday sickness claims. Holiday sickness claims in Britain had increased by […]
Delay to holiday sickness small claims court plans
Plans to raise the maximum value of personal injury claims such as holiday sickness in the small claims court have been delayed for a year. The government’s change of stance means that rules that were scheduled to come into effect in April 2019 will now be implemented in April 2020. From then, personal injury claims […]
Be wary of approaches from unscrupulous claims firms
Holidaymakers are being urged to be wary of approaches from individuals or companies encouraging them to submit exaggerated or false holiday sickness claims. ABTA issued a warning after research found that 70% of Brits don’t realise that making a false claim for holiday sickness could result in a prison sentence in the UK or abroad […]