Validating a Booking
On occasions you will come across bookings that require a manual review to ascertain if the booking should be accepted or rejected. Whether an online or call centre booking there are a few simple steps to take to assist you in making your decision.
Speak to the lead passenger
During the booking process you will most likely collect at least three pieces of information that will enable you to contact the lead passenger of a booking, namely a postal address, an email address and a telephone number.
Evidence shows that where a fraudulent booking has taken place you are more often than not unable to contact the lead passenger stated, therefore if you are checking a booking and are unable to contact the lead passenger you have good reason to reject the booking. In such a circumstance it is common sense to ensure you have acted reasonably in your efforts to contact the customer and that you have a record of your attempt to contact the customer. The amount of time you allow the customer to come back to you will be dependent on when the travel arrangements commence and when costs will be incurred by your business for the services purchased.
Confirm the details given
In the event that you are able to speak to the lead passenger your initial conversation should relate to confirming details of the booking made, how you go about doing this will be dependent on your organisation.
A genuine customer should have no problem confirming the personal details given, while a fraudster may not have such information to hand so may be more hesitant in supplying such information.
Ask questions about the data given
A clever fraudster may well have all the personal information relating to the booking to hand so to confirm they are who they say they are you may choose to ask a question based on the information they have given. This may include asking them a question about where they live like a street name near them, or a building of significance in the area. Other questions that could be asked could include who else lives at the postal address stated or what type of payment card was used for the transaction?
Carry out further checks
Once you have gone through the previous checks you are likely to have a fairly good idea if the booking is fraudulent, however you might want to perform one further check just to make sure. The checks carried out previously should all be straight forward for a customer with a legitimate booking, therefore creating minimal hassle; however the last check requires a bit more effort from the customer so you want to make sure you are not upsetting legitimate customers.
The final check should be to ask the customer to provide a copy of their passport and the back and front of the payment card used. The chances of a fraudster having this information will be slim, therefore should be the last piece of information you need to make your decision on whether to accept or reject a booking.