The Court of Appeal heard yesterday that former XL Leisure boss Phil Wyatt and his business associates were victims of a “fallacy in the approach” of Goldtrail liquidator PwC when found liable for a £1.4 million claim in 2014. Wyatt, Magnus Stephensen, Halldor Sigurdarson and Wyatt’s investment vehicle Black Pearl Investments were found liable for […]
Category: Latest Fraud News
CEO fraud
A scam termed “CEO fraud” or “business email crime” has proven costly for businesses across the globe. According to the FBI, losses incurred from this scam have cost companies more than $2bn (£1.43bn, €1.81bn) over the past two years. Under their modus operandi, criminals impersonate email accounts of chief executives and ask employees to transfer […]
Man found guilty of internet scams
A 23-year-old Victorian man found guilty of multiple internet and credit card fraud scams has appealed against his sentence and had it reduced to one year in jail. Joash Boyton was involved in a number of computer scams using stolen credit card data from the time he was 17, until he was 20 years old. […]
Victims of timeshare fraud
Holiday home scam victims at risk of losing money a second time to fraudsters who pose as legal professionals offering to help. Victims of timeshare fraud risk losing money to a second scam where criminals pretend to help them get cash back, experts warn. Most will have spent thousands of pounds on a share in […]
Bank details of 100,000 Britons for sale on internet
Banking details stolen from more than a million people worldwide can be bought from an website on the open internet, rather than on the “dark web”, for as little as £1.67. Criminals are selling the stolen credit and debit card details of 100,000 Britons on the internet in new market said to be “the largest […]
Travel firms fall victim to email phishing CEO fraud
A travel industry anti-fraud group has warned of a new form of cybercrime threatening the sector. Three companies, including a national business, have been recent targets of ‘payment request’ fraud, with one losing an entire season’s profits in a single transaction. However, industry anti-fraud group Profit warns the scam, which first came to light last […]
Two in five Brits wary of travel scams
Almost three quarters of consumers say they wouldn’t purchase a holiday from a website which looks unprofessional. Two in five (43 per cent) Brits are afraid of becoming scam victims when booking holidays, new research from the global online review community Trustpilot has revealed. This is one of the busiest times of the year for […]
Scam Artist Travel Agent
A Chicago-based travel agent has been convicted of seven counts of fraud for scams involving clients who paid for—but did not receive—air bookings to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois last month convicted Rashid Minhas with help from the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) fraud prevention team whose […]
Appeal by Goldtrail defendant dismissed
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Turkish carrier Onur Air against a judgment which found it liable for a £3.64 million compensation claim by Goldtrail Travel liquidator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC brought a double claim following a three-year investigation in 2014. At that time former XL Leisure boss Phil Wyatt, his business associates […]
UK phishing scams rise by 20 percent in 12 months
New figures released by Action Fraud suggest that phishing scams in the UK have grown by 21 percent over the past 12 months. Action Fraud, which works closely with City of London Police and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, said that the number of reported phishing scams between November 2014 and October 2015 totalled 95,556. […]
Rise in reports of bogus travel websites
A high number of bogus travel websites have emerged since before Christmas, the industry’s anti-fraud body warns. They are either direct facsimiles of genuine websites or sites that use confusingly similar names and domain names as genuine companies. Prevention of Fraud in Travel (PROFiT) is urging all companies to be vigilant and regularly check their […]
Hyatt names hotels hit by malware
The Hyatt hotel chain has posted a global list of hotels hit by malware that was found on its customer payments system last year. The list includes Hyatt premises in Canada, the US, the UK, Jordan, Chile and Indonesia and involves almost half of its properties. The firm is offering one year’s free protection to […]
Airline Scams That People Actually Fall For
Sometimes the most expensive part of planning a vacation is booking your airline ticket. And I can imagine nothing worse then preparing for your trip, only to realize that your ticket isn’t real. Here are three common airline scams, and how to avoid them. Link to article
Booking scams: Helping guests helps hoteliers
With 15 million deceptive bookings last year, hoteliers must educate and assist guests who were victimized by booking scams. Although online booking scams are a problem that should be resolved by the hotel industry as a whole, they also can cause headaches for individual front-desk employees at properties. According to research from the American Hotel […]
Scams that can turn your holiday into a nightmare
Booking a holiday can sometimes be as exciting as the trip itself. Sadly, fraudsters take advantage of judgement being clouded by the thrill of buying tickets for that dream destination with fake websites and tickets and even fraudulent resort presentations. Here, MailOnline takes a look at some of the warnings signs to watch out for, […]
The ‘bogus boss’ email scam costing firms millions
You return from a trip to find that hundreds of thousands of dollars has been transferred out of company accounts – apparently at your instruction. But you have no idea what your accountant is talking about – you didn’t give any instructions. This is what happened to Carole Gratzmuller, boss of a medium-sized French company […]
Iata deploys high-tech fraud prevention solution
Action to crack down on payment fraud in the air travel industry is being stepped up by Iata by including agents in a high-tech prevention method. Payment fraud costs the industry an estimated $858 million a year, with $639 million borne by airlines and the remainder by other participants in the travel value chain, including […]
The rise of social engineering fraud
Most of us like to think we’re too clever to be caught out by email and telephone scams, but in fact any of us can get caught out by fraudsters. Their tricks have gone far beyond the infamous fax from a “Nigerian prince” you’ve never heard of asking you for money. Now frauds are increasingly […]
Holiday spike in fake emails from banks
Consumers are being warned of a seasonal spike in “phishing” emails purporting to be from HSBC, NatWest and other major banks. Fraud experts say conmen are taking advantage of consumers’ higher-than-usual spending over the holiday period to trick them into thinking there is a problem with their account. The emails – which typically warn customers […]
Fraudulent travel company websites
ABTA warns public about dangers of fraudulent travel company websites. ABTA, the Travel Association, is reminding consumers about the risks of booking their flights and holidays on fake websites, after seeing an increase in the number of customer enquiries reporting fraudulent travel company websites. The Association is particularly concerned that in the run up to […]