Two London-based travel agencies have been raided by police investigating the fraudulent selling of packages for the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Officers from City of London Police and Birmingham Trading Standards arrested two men and seized around £400,000 during the two raids at properties in east London. Link to article
Category: Latest Fraud News
Aussie banks seen as easy targets for cyber crime
Australia’s banks will be increasingly seen as soft targets for cyber criminals. Ernst & Young’s global head of information security warns. On a flying visit to Australia to meet clients this week, Ken Allan said while banks here suffered fewer attacks than their European or US counterparts, they could be less prepared for criminal attacks […]
Biggest fare dodger in history
A high flying city executive who dodged rail fares for five years has been branded as ‘greedy’ and ‘selfish’ after his identity was revealed. Jonathan Burrows has been unmasked as the mystery fare dodger of East Sussex who hit the news after settling a £43,000 bill for unpaid tickets over five years. Link to article
Police ready to arrest airline ticket scam artist
CALIFORNIA – New developments are taking place in an alleged airline ticket scheme that supposedly swindled dozens of San Diego Filipinos out of thousands of dollars. After hearing complaints against Elvie’s Travels, the National City Police Department said they are looking for more of Nestor Abulente’s alleged victims as they prepare to arrest him. Abulente […]
UK card fraud beats all records
UK card fraud reached record levels in 2013 which means that consumers should prepare for more real-time transaction checks when buying goods, a fraud expert has predicted. The analysis from analytics firm FICO (based on Euromonitor numbers), reported that in 2013 UK card fraud rose 16 percent to a record £450 million, meaning that the […]
Paddy Power hack almost certainly led to ID theft
The theft of personal details belonging to 650,000 Paddy Power customers in 2010 has almost certainly led to some of those people falling victim to identity theft. The theft of personal details belonging to 650,000 Paddy Power customers in 2010 has almost certainly led to some of those people falling victim to identity theft, warns […]
Hackers Amass Over a Billion Passwords
A Russian crime ring has amassed the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, including 1.2 billion user name and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses, security researchers say. The records, discovered by Hold Security, a firm in Milwaukee, include confidential material gathered from 420,000 websites, including household names, and small Internet […]
Holiday phish based on genuine hotel booking
Scammers have launched a devious phishing campaign aimed at tricking customers of targeted hotels into transferring funds to a drop account. Securobods suggested cybercrooks either hacked into a Spanish hotel’s system or persuaded someone to hand over customer records on a false pretext before using the purloined details to trick their customers into transferring funds […]
Iata terminates AirFastTickets licence
Iata has terminated AirFastTickets’ licence, meaning the OTA can no longer sell flight tickets in the UK and Germany, TTG has learned. The aviation authority initially suspended the OTA from trading from these offices as well as in Greece, in June, after it emerged that AirFastTickets owed a total of €45 million, with the amount […]
Airline collapses
New airline Fly Olympic AB, which was selling flights from London to Africa via Sweden and Greece, has cancelled all its services and filed for bankruptcy. It claimed that after two weeks of trying to find a solution to its financial difficulties, it has decided to throw in the towel. It blamed a new operation […]
Improve employee screening to avoid fraud
The typical organisation loses 5 per cent of its annual revenue each year through employee fraud, according to the 2014 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. And it is not just a small minority of employees that are the likely culprits. Studies have found that up to one third of a company’s […]
Credit Card Fraudster Gets 9 Years
A Turkish man has been sentenced to more than nine years in federal prison for his role in a fraud scheme that involved the compromise of payment card details at a San Diego hotel. Alper Erdogan was sentenced for conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft, according […]
Internal Fraud in the Hotel Industry
Incidences of staff fraud are increasing year-on-year (an 18% increase alone in 2013), and hotel businesses are particularly vulnerable. After all, hotel staff handle sensitive customer data, cash and the personal belongings of guests. Hotel Industry Magazine asks CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention agency, for advice on how hoteliers can mitigate the risks of internal […]
Travel agent fined £150k over internet security breach
Thomas Cook, the travel agent, will pay a £150,000 fine after banking details of more than a million holidaymakers were stolen from one of its subsidiary companies by a computer hacker. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) imposed the fine on Essential Travel Ltd after what it described as a “staggering lapse” in security. Link to […]
Six charged over StubHub e-ticket heist
Six suspected cybercriminals have been indicted over their alleged involvement in a hack attack on eBay-owned ticketing website StubHub. Thieves got into more than 1,600 of StubHub customers’ accounts and used their credit card details to fraudulently buy tickets for events through the online ticket reseller. The scam – reckoned to have cost the eBay […]
Police arrest suspects in StubHub fraud
Cybercrime ring in US, UK, Russia and Canada hacked into accounts held by more than 1,600 of the eBay site’s users. An international crime ring that hacked into accounts held by users of a ticket website to stage a $1m fraud has been dismantled in a transatlantic crackdown involving British and Canadian police. More than […]
3 in 10 Consumers Don’t Trust Retailers
China and India have highest rates of prepaid card fraud, 17 percent and 18 percent, respectively, according to latest global consumer fraud study from ACI Worldwide and Aite. A global fraud study of more than 6,100 consumers across 20 countries revealed distrust among global consumers in retailers to protect their data. Link to article
Holiday villa fraud
The summer break has only just begun and I’ve already had my first case of holiday villa fraud. It’s a horribly simple scam that involves criminals taking payment for holiday properties they don’t own. All they do is cut and paste the details of rental flats and cottages from one online listings site and put […]
Travel firms face impact of Visa chargeback fee
Visa is poised to impose a €12 (£10) charge on credit card acquirers for some chargebacks associated with fraudulent transactions. The card-payment processing firm plans to bring in the fee on October 1 for certain transactions in Europe, including a range of ‘cardholder not present’ (CNP) payments. Link to article
Travel firms hit by 070 call centre scam
Travel firms have been warned to not call back any clients on premium line 070 numbers after a number of firms were targeted by fraudsters. Travel industry anti-fraud group PROFiT has highlighted the scam in its latest alert. It is believed around six firms have reported falling victim to the scam. Link to article