A Perthshire business has issued a warning to holidaymakers after an apparent fraudulent site was create with an identical name in their mind. An investigation has been launched after some residents were duped into utilizing a fraudulent holiday company, calling themselves ‘The Travels Bar’, an identical name to a favorite, legitimate business, called The Travel […]
Month: December 2018
Black Tip Travel seeks insolvency advice
Business travel agency Black Tip Travel is seeking insolvency advice having lost its membership of Abta and The Advantage Travel Partnership. The agency, based in Tonbridge, Kent, put a statement on its website saying that it is “currently undergoing some issues” and asked customers to contact its customer services team for information on refund requests […]
UK travel industry faces scam email attack
The UK travel trade has been warned over an email phishing attack. People receiving an email claiming their company has been entered onto the ‘UK non-compliance register’ for GDPR should beware. A scam alert advising that the emails should be deleted without opening was issued by Prevention of Fraud in Travel, which has called in […]
Customer jailed for stealing agents passwords
A jobless man has been given a prison sentence for booking holidays worth £44,000 after admitting using travel agency staff passwords to get into systems. Adam Griffiths of Penlan, Swansea, used the passwords to access systems to book luxurious holidays in the Seychelles and Dubai. Griffiths, 28, who was described in court as a ‘Walter […]
Travel fraud database stops six criminals in first six months
Six criminals within six months have been prevented from “consortia-hopping” thanks to the trade’s first industry-wide fraud intelligence database. The Fraud Intelligence Network (Fin) is a database of more than 1,000 criminals. After a soft launch in June, it officially launches this week, at the culmination of the Prevention of Fraud in Travel (Profit) cybercrime […]
Up to 500 million Starwood customers hit by data breach
Marriott International has said 500 million customers of its Starwood division have been targeted in a data breach. he hotel company said the guest reservation database of its Starwood network, including those who have booked W Hotels, Sheraton, Le Méridien and Four Points by Sheraton, had been compromised by an ‘unauthorised party’. The unauthorised access […]
Fighting back against fraud
We saw a small but significant step forward in the industry’s fight against fraud this week with the formal establishment of the trade’s first Fraud Intelligence Network (Fin) and its database of more than 1,000 criminals. The network aims to prevent serial fraud by preventing those convicted of offences in travel from re-entering the sector, […]
Facebookers fall for fake Center Parcs competition
Tens of thousands of Facebook users have fallen for a fake competition which offered a free holiday to Center Parcs Longleat to users who liked, shared and commented on the post. The post, featuring a fictitious Center Parcs CEO Mark Frendon, offered the chance to win one of 30 breaks at Longleat. Wiltshire Trading Standards […]
Lawsuits filed after Starwood data breach
Private lawsuits are beginning to be filed and several state investigations are underway following the massive Starwood data breach that was disclosed by owner Marriott International on Friday. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office is among national organisations looking into the hack and lawsuits have been filed by individual companies as well as lawyers intending to […]
Judge throws out fake holiday illness case
A man who claimed he had suffered food poisoning on holiday has had his case thrown out of court and could now be prosecuted for a crime. As well as ordering 30-year-old Tom Oakley to pay £9,000 in costs to TUI, the judge also referred the case to police and asked them to investigate whether […]