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 […]
Category: Fraud Prevention News
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 […]
Preventing Fraud
It’s late in the day when the travel agent picks up the ringing phone. The caller ID on her display shows the call is local, but it’s not from a number she recognizes. The man on the phone identifies himself as a doctor who needs four tickets for an international flight that night due to […]
Abta plans ‘Travel with confidence’ advertising blitz
Familes and older travellers will be targeted by Abta in a new year peak booking period ‘Travel with confidence’ advertising blitz. The growing issue of fraudulent websites, online scams and non-compliant travel companies that have no financial protection in place will be highlighted. The campaign will emphasise that the Abta logo is a symbol of […]
UK retailers facing one million fraud attempts per day
The UK’s retailers have been warned to brace themselves for a barrage of fraud attempts this busy festive shopping season, with estimates claiming they’ll be hit by one million attacks each day. Fraud prevention firm ThreatMetrix made the call based on data collected by its Digital Identity Network – which checks over 20 billion annual […]
New airline scam promises free Emirates flight tickets
Year-end celebrations are close and many people are looking to book their plane tickets to visit relatives and friends. As expected, cybercriminals are looking to exploit users over the festive period – social engineering techniques are frequent over the holidays, as demonstrated by a scam that is promising people free flight tickets. What is the […]
Bogus illness claims firm
A travel firm is reported to have used spies to catch a claims management company encouraging holidaymakers in Benidorm to make bogus allegations that they fell ill. The investigation comes as some resorts have seen a 400% increase in claims made against them, many generated by legal firms who advertise on social media sites such […]
Hoteliers vow action against fraudulent claims
The consumer group Which? has criticised some of Britain’s biggest banks for failing to invest in security systems that would better protect their customers from fraudsters. Against a backdrop of booming bank fraud, Which? tested the UK’s 11 biggest banks and building societies and found that the security at five of them was still not […]
Banks’ online security is failing customers
The consumer group Which? has criticised some of Britain’s biggest banks for failing to invest in security systems that would better protect their customers from fraudsters. Against a backdrop of booming bank fraud, Which? tested the UK’s 11 biggest banks and building societies and found that the security at five of them was still not […]
Ex nurse set up a bogus travel agency
A penniless ex nurse went on eight luxury cruises worth £55,000 in five months after setting up a bogus travel agency and using it to book the holidays. Kay Hooper, 58, booked penthouse state rooms on all-inclusive deals and spent up to 10 days a time cruising in luxury in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, […]
Advantage calls for watch list to counter agent fraud
The boss of Advantage Travel Partnership is calling on consortia and industry bodies to back calls for a new watch list to prevent agent members committing fraud. The Prevention of Fraud in Travel (Profit) group has been working with Advantage and City of London Police to set up the portal. Chairman Barry Gooch said it […]
Homeworker found guilty of defrauding Advantage
A homeworker who defrauded Advantage Travel Partnership of tens of thousands of pounds has been handed a suspended jail sentence. Rita Hunter, who ran Hunters Travel in Liverpool, was ordered to pay back £33,000 to the consortium. Hunter admitted using former customers’ credit and debit cards to pay for new bookings through the consortium, while […]
Credit card with fraud-busting display
A credit card with a digital display that randomly generates a security code is being launched as a way of combating fraud. Oberthur Technologies is currently in discussions with UK banks about rolling out the technology and will have cards “in the hands” of consumers in France by the end of the year. Credit card […]
One in ten credit card users fall victim to fraudsters
More than four million people were forced to cancel credit or debit cards after falling victim to fraud in the last year, making you more likely to be mugged online than in the street. A survey of more than 2,000 adults in the UK found one in 10 were targeted by scams that meant they […]
UK banks urged to protect customers from fraudsters
British banks must do more to protect customers from transferring money to scam artists, says a new “super-complaint” to the UK’s payments watchdog. Which?, the consumer group behind the complaint, said banks had to take responsibility if customers sent money to schemes that turned out to be fraudulent. As an example, it said it had […]
Russian Cybercriminal Gets Prison For StubHub Scam
Law360, New York (July 6, 2016, 9:17 PM ET) — A Russian national accused of masterminding an international cybercrime scheme on Wednesday was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for ripping off personal data from users of online ticket marketplace StubHub, which was used to resell tickets to sporting events, Broadway shows and […]
Fraud victims outside London have ‘little chance’ of police help
Fraud victims outside London whose cases are reported to the police have “little chance of any kind of investigation”, an an authoritative study has found. In a damning assessment the Fraud Advisory Panel said yesterday that Britain’s anti-fraud and cyber-crime measures were “under resourced” and suffered from “widespread ignorance of threats and [an] uncoordinated approach”. […]
Buying into fraud
The cost of fraud is far higher than previous estimates, and procurement accounts for most of this. With cuts to internal audit and procurement teams focused on savings, local authorities need all the help they can get. David Cameron’s hosting of the world’s first anti-corruption summit in May certainly sent out a message that fraud […]
Warning issued over Iata phishing scam
A warning has gone out to the trade over an apparent phishing scam seeking to obtain direct payments from travel companies. The alert was raised by Traveltek president and chief executive Kenny Picken after receiving an email purporting to be from Iata claiming to be carrying out a payments audit. It claimed to be sent […]
Cifas calls on UK government to help tackle fraud
The UK fraud prevention service is calling on the government to use the Queen’s Speech to introduce policy and legislative changes to tackle cyber and other forms of fraud UK fraud prevention service Cifas is calling on the government to make tackling cyber and other financial crime a priority in the Queen’s Speech on 18 […]