Rebecca Waterfall, who worked for Incentivise, a travel agent based in Lymm, Cheshire, left her bosses more than £10,000 in the red – and the Conways more than £5,000 out of pocket after using her bosses’ credit card to pay for vacations, and using her clients’ money to pay off the bills. Prior to the […]
Month: January 2017
Cheshire travel agent admits fraud
A travel agent is due to be sentenced tomorrow after admitting fraud by abuse of position. Rebecca Waterfall worked for Incentivise, an agency based in Lymm, Cheshire, between October 2015 and May last year. She admitted that during that time she fraudulently used her employer’s credit card to pay for holidays. In total she spent […]
Claims firms fan surge in bogus illness claims
Claims management companies are fuelling “an explosion” in gastric illness (GI) claims by UK holidaymakers in what a leading industry lawyer calls “a money‑making process”. Maria Pittordis, head of marine trade and energy and partner at City law firm Hill Dickinson, said: “There has to be some forceful claims handling.” She told a Hill Dickinson […]
Fraud and cyber scams cause crime total to double
Fraud was today named as the most common offence as new figures revealed that true level of crime is nearly double the previous official total. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that there were 11.8 million crimes committed in England and Wales in the 12 months to the end of September. The tally […]
Govt urged to change laws on holiday sickness claims
ABTA is calling on agents and operators to back their fight to stop a sharp rise in sickness claims by holidaymakers. It wants members to share their own experiences and provide evidence of the problem, which they say has escalated in recent years. ABTA believes the rise in claims coincided with changes in the law […]
Holiday Villa Scam
Holidaymakers are being tricked out of thousands of pounds in a cruel villa scam that has led to arrests in Spain. A Money Mail investigation has uncovered dozens of suspected fraud victims sold ‘bargain’ holidays in the Canary and Balearic Islands that didn’t exist. Families are being lured in by apparently genuine websites that appear […]
Abta fraud risk warning
The risks of booking with fraudulent travel companies is highlighted today in a warning issued by Abta. The alert as the peak booking period gets underway follows an increase in fake websites, online scams and non-compliant travel companies that have no financial protection in place. With a third of summer holidays typically booked during January […]
IHG warns of possible data breach
Intercontinental Hotels Group has raised fears of a possible payment card breach at some US hotels. IHG confirmed to Cybersecurity authority website KrebsOnSecurity that an investigation is underway, and it had instructed an external security firm to probe the matter after a pattern of fraud was detected on some customers’ cards. In a statement, the […]
GDS security hopelessly insecure
Security on GDS technology and communication is “hopelessly insecure” and leaves travellers and travel firms open to cybercrime, new research has found. Delegates at a convention of computer hackers in Germany heard a report from security firm SR Labs that claimed flaws allowed criminals to harvest personal information, steal flights or earn millions in air […]