The founder of Villa Plus has helped close down two fake holiday villa sites and has warned the public to be wary. Nick Cooper, founder and co-owner of Villa Plus, contacted police after discovering properties were being advertised without owners’ knowledge or consent. He warns there has been a big rise in the number of […]
Month: February 2017
Cruise operator sentenced to jail
Bret Gordon was sentenced last week in the U.S. District Court in Boston to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.9 million for defrauding hundreds of customers of the now-defunct river cruise reselling operation Tom Harper Cruises, the company he established in 2013. Between September 2013 and June 2015, Gordon took about $2.3 […]
InterContinental Hotels Group at risk of fraud?
On December 28, 2016, InterContinental Hotels Group (IGH) announced it would conduct investigations after receiving a report of unauthorised charges that had occurred on some payment cards in a number of its U.S. hotel properties, Travel Agent Central has reported. Upon receiving information of the first compromised card, IHG hired leading cyber security firms to […]
Ibiza holiday turned out to be a scam
A group of friends have been left devastated and thousands of pounds out of pocket when their dream £4,000 Ibiza holiday turned out to be a scam. Alexandria Broad-Surry, 22, had booked a week’s getaway to the popular holiday destination with nine close friends after finding the perfect property online. She visited the website homeaway.com, […]
Villa rental website preying on bargain-hunting
A scam villa rental website preying on bargain-hunting holidaymakers has been shut down after pressure from The Independent. The site, cycladesrentals.com, was the latest attempt at defrauding travellers using images taken from genuine websites. It claimed to have been “in the field of luxury tourist services for decades”, but was in fact set up last […]
UK Retailers Hit by £100m Cyber Fraud Bill
Online fraud now accounts for over half of all fraud incidents in the UK retail sector as existing deterrents prove ineffective, according to new stats from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). The BRC’s 2016 Retail Crime Survey revealed that 53% of all fraud in the industry comes from cyber, amounting to estimated losses of £100 […]
IHG confirms payment card data breach in 12 hotels
InterContinental Hotels Group has confirmed it was hit by a payment card breach a month ago, revealing payment systems were compromised at a dozen hotels in the US and the Caribbean. According to an IHG statement cards used between August and December last year may be compromised. In a statement, the company said: “IHG has […]
Hajj travel firm boss jailed for 14 months for fraud
The director of a Hajj travel firm was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court yesterday (31 January 2017). Birmingham City Council brought the prosecution following a joint operation between Birmingham Trading Standards and the City of London Police, in Tameside, Greater Manchester on 20 April 2015, assisted […]
Mid-air scammers given suspended jail sentences
Two men have been given jail sentences after exploiting a mid-air banking loophole to buy £1,500 worth of duty free goods using ‘maxed out’ credit cards Peter Jackson and Geoffrey Dunn deliberately took flights in order to take advantage of the scam which meant they were able to purchase items without the means to do […]
Abta welcomes probe into holiday sickness claims firms
Abta has welcomed plans for a formal probe into rogue claims management companies who encourage holidaymakers to lie about being ill to pocket thousands in compensation. The Ministry of Justice’s Claims Management Services Regulator is to examine the relationship between such cowboy firms and solicitors after a surge in holiday sickness claims. The action follows […]
Government to investigate rise in holiday sickness payouts
The Ministry of Justice’s Claims Management Services Regulator is to examine the relationship between firms that encourage tourists to lie about holiday sickness and solicitors who take the cases on. The MoJ told the Daily Mail: “Tackling fraud in the claims management industry is a key priority and the Claims Management Services Regulator has taken […]
British hoteliers warned of rise in cyber attacks
Two luxury hotels in Cornwall have become victims of cyber attacks, which are increasingly common at British hotels, according to a new report. It suggested criminals hack into bookings systems and block all access, then demand ransoms. Neither of the unnamed Cornish hotels paid the ransom, according to the report in The Times, but they […]