The government has today launched a call for evidence to get travel industry guidance on how to tackle the plague of fake holiday sickness claims, which Abta says has so far cost £240 million. Experts will be asked to help inform the next step in the false claims epidemic to help the government, has vowed […]
Category: Latest Fraud News
Family scammed out of £2,300
The American Hotel and Lodging Association is warning consumers about the mass explosion of hotel booking scams that are costing the hotel industry billions of dollars and duping millions of travelers. All are basically a take on the old bait and switch. Here’s the how it usually plays out: You book your hotel reservation online, […]
Caravan park bookers fall victim to fraudsters
The American Hotel and Lodging Association is warning consumers about the mass explosion of hotel booking scams that are costing the hotel industry billions of dollars and duping millions of travelers. All are basically a take on the old bait and switch. Here’s the how it usually plays out: You book your hotel reservation online, […]
Avoid the Online Booking Scam
The American Hotel and Lodging Association is warning consumers about the mass explosion of hotel booking scams that are costing the hotel industry billions of dollars and duping millions of travelers. All are basically a take on the old bait and switch. Here’s the how it usually plays out: You book your hotel reservation online, […]
UK card fraud falls after banks tighten security
The amount of money stolen from credit and debit cards has fallen sharply, with banks claiming they are now managing to stop 67 per cent of attempted fraud. New figures reveal that card theft in the first half of the year was £287m, down 11 per cent compared with a year ago, according to the […]
Why Brits got the bug for holiday sickness scams
British holidaymakers lead the world when it comes to false compensation claims – and now travel companies are fighting back. What has caused these nasty ‘gastroenteritis wars’ being fought across the Mediterranean? In October 2013, Sean and Caroline Bondarenko spent a week at the five-star Caldera Palace hotel in Crete. Then they returned home. Three […]
Bogus travel agent helped illegal migrants flee to Spain
A bogus travel agent used stolen passports to help illegal immigrants book flights to Spain. Zaman Shah, 41, formerly of Cameron Street, Burnley arrived in the UK from Afghanistan without identity documents in 1999 before eventually being granted British citizenship in 2012. But for 18 months, Shah helped Pakistani migrants flee the UK to Spain […]
Thomas Cook puts stop to 3,000 fake illness claims
The fight against fake holiday sickness claims is building momentum ahead of a government call for evidence. Amie Keeley and Ben Ireland report Thomas Cook has stopped 3,000 fake holiday sickness claims by writing to law firms warning them about fraud. The operator asked law firms handling sickness claims to review files following the rapid […]
Police probes law firms role in £50m holiday illness scam
The involvement of UK law firms in a £50 million holiday illness scam is reportedly being investigated by Scotland Yard. The disclosure came from a lawyer from a Spanish hotel group. Carolina Ruiz of Monex, a legal firm in Spain challenging hundreds of bogus sickness claims that cost the Mac Hotel Group £4 million, told […]
Collapsed Quartz Travel breached contract
The Freedom Travel Group has alleged that it discovered “significant breaches of contract” by Quartz Travel before it ceased trading last week. Notices appeared on the shop doors of Quartz Travel in York’s Heworth Road and Quartz Travel Lite in Blossom Street (formerly Amigo Travel) advising that the premises were closed, before insolvency specialist Begbies […]
Family left stranded in Spain after Facebook villa scam
A family of seven from the UK claim they lost over €800 on a Facebook scam for a villa that didn’t exist. Sheeba Gharda booked the holiday last-minute after seeing the Marbella villa advertised on Facebook and received confirmation from the owner, who claimed to be a woman called Christina Lori. The owner allegedly asked […]
Hotel sickness scam ringleader is taken into court
The heavily pregnant British expat being held in Majorca suspected of masterminding a holiday food poisoning scam was today taken to court in handcuffs. Laura Joyce, 28, and her mother Deborah Cameron, 59, were arrested at a luxury family home in the upmarket suburb of Bendinat on the Spanish island earlier this week. It has […]
Equifax Hackers Stole 200k Credit Card Accounts
Visa and MasterCard are sending confidential alerts to financial institutions across the United States this week, warning them about more than 200,000 credit cards that were stolen in the epic data breach announced last week at big-three credit bureau Equifax. At first glance, the private notices obtained by KrebsOnSecurity appear to suggest that hackers initially breached Equifax […]
Lowcost Group – reason for collapse still unknown
Administrators appointed following the collapse of Lowcosttravelgroup last summer owing tens of millions of pounds have still to establish a cause for the company going under. The latest progress report by administrators at Smith & Williamson says an investigation is continuing into the business and its various trading arms. Total claims received against against lowcosttravelgroup […]
Watchdog probes firms links with sickness claims companies
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating 12 law firms it suspects of having “potentially improper links” with claims management firms in connection with holiday sickness claims. The legal firms are also being investigated over allegations of payments made for referrals of holiday sickness claims from claims companies. The SRA says it is also seeing evidence […]
YouTube video encouraging holiday sickness claims banned
A YouTube video encouraging holidaymakers to make sickness claims when they return from their trips has been banned following a complaint by ABTA. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld three complaints made by the travel association against the video, which was promoting holidaysicknessclaims.co.uk run by Manchester-based Claims Legal. The video featured a mock newsreader claiming […]
Six arrested in fake holiday sickness claim operation
Spanish police have reportedly arrested several people and seized computers in Majorca amid a massive operation against alleged fake holiday food poisoning claims. Civil Guard officers took hold of bundles of documents during court-authorised searches of properties and businesses on the island. Sources told The Mirror they believe two to three of six people reportedly […]
Beware crying wolf over holiday sickness complaints
Assuming that holiday illness complaints are a scam could be a ‘recipe for disaster’, says Professor Rodney Cartwright and Dr Esteban Delgado. “Not another client complaint of stomach upset whilst on holiday. We know it is probably another scam. Let’s ignore it for a while.” This can be a recipe for disaster. It is true […]
Deluge of fake sickness claims expected
Holidaymakers are being urged not to make false sickness compensation claims as the peak holiday season draws to a close. Abta issued the warning as unscrupulous claims firms are predicted to bombard customers returning home telling them they are “entitled” to claim from a pot of money set aside by the government or their travel […]
Sickness claims tout first to lose licence
Intelligence gathered by Claims Management Regulator (CMR) officers revealed that Preston-based Allsure Ltd had encouraged holiday-makers to “fabricate or embellish symptoms of gastric illness to get compensation”. Further evidence showed the firm had used deceptive sales scripts, exaggerating expected payouts to entice consumers, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) reported. Allsure Ltd can no longer offer […]