Travel related scams and what travel vendors can do to protect their customers
Imagine for a moment that you are an average consumer. It is already the end of January and the winter holiday celebrations are all far behind you. You have shifted your mindset to the new year and you realize that the spring and summer vacation seasons are not that far away. Now is the time to book, because plane tickets, accommodations, and vacation packages are starting to sell out and the prices are already going up due to the demand. Some good deals are still available but you need to hurry to take advantage of them. You go online and you find the deal of a lifetime on your dream vacation. It is a special deal: a travel package being offered by a well-known and trusted online travel vendor and you quickly pull out your credit card to make the purchase.
How will this story end?
Thanks to online booking, travel is easier than ever these days, and while it is unfortunate, fraud and scams targeting travelers are on the rise. Every year, thousands of people around the world become victims of travel scams. Whether they are planning a luxury vacation or a weekend getaway, understanding criminal tactics can help you to help your customers avoid costly financial losses and ensure your organization retains its good reputation as a trusted vendor.
Online travel purchases may represent some of the largest purchases an average consumer makes throughout the year, with a U.S. domestic trip costing an average of $2000 per person. There are very few places on the Internet where an average person might regularly go to spend thousands of dollars in a single purchase, but online travel agencies (OTAs), airline booking sites, and hotel or vacation rental reservation pages all serve this purpose – and make them perfect for scams.
According to the United Nations Tourism Tracker, the travel industry is experiencing a surge in activity as people eagerly explore the world, with numbers now matching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, this resurgence has also attracted a wave of sophisticated scammers preying on unsuspecting travelers. As a travel business, it’s critical to help your clients understand the evolving threats involving travel fraud and equip them with the tools to protect their wallets and their trips.
What are the threats targeting travel customers?
There are lots of devious ways cyber criminals attempt to scam, steal, and defraud unsuspecting travel customers. These scams target every segment of the travel industry and can prey on any demographic. Here are four of the most common types of travel scams that regularly catch consumers unaware:
- Fake Websites and Deals: Fraudsters create convincing replicas of legitimate travel websites and social media pages, luring travelers with irresistible deals on flights, accommodations, and packages. These often involve phishing tactics to steal personal and financial information or upfront payments for services that don’t exist.
- Vacation Rental Scams: Beyond fake listings, scammers hijack legitimate bookings. They may contact travelers posing as the host or platform, requesting payment outside secure channels or diverting them to fraudulent websites. This bypasses built-in security measures and leaves travelers vulnerable to financial loss and data theft.
- Phishing and Social Engineering: Travelers are bombarded with sophisticated phishing attempts via email, SMS, and social media. These may impersonate airlines, hotels, or travel agencies, aiming to capture login credentials, credit card details, or personal data.
- Counterfeit Tickets and Passes: The rise of digital ticketing creates opportunities for scammers to sell fake tickets to attractions, events, and transportation (like this report involving the 2024 Paris Olympic Games), leaving travelers stranded and disappointed.
These are only some of the most common scams we see in the travel industry. There are many more. For example, threat researchers are starting to see a rise in new scams related to airline frequent flyer miles.
Why is the travel industry a target for scams?
Aside from the larger-than-normal payouts travel scams can garner, there are other reasons why the travel industry is a desirable target for cyber criminals. Since most cyber criminals are opportunists, they look for “low hanging fruit”, or targets that provide maximum gain for the least amount of effort. The travel industry offers a perfect storm on which scammers can capitalize:
- Increased Travel Volume: Post-pandemic, travel has rebounded with a vengeance. This surge creates more opportunities for scammers to target a larger pool of potential victims and a scarcity economy, in which it feels like the demand outstrips the supply. This means travelers are shopping with a sense of urgency and an appetite for risk to get a deal.
- Digital Shift: Travelers are increasingly relying on online platforms for booking and managing their trips, expanding the attack surface for cybercriminals. While convenient, online travel platforms present the challenge of anonymity. It’s much easier for a criminal to make themselves seem legitimate in this environment.
- Sophisticated Tactics: Scammers are constantly refining their methods, employing advanced techniques like phishing, social engineering, and AI-powered impersonation to deceive travelers. These methods enable even relatively unsophisticated criminals to create convincing sites that spoof or impersonate genuine, trusted travel platforms.
What can travel vendors do to combat travel scams?
The criminals will always be there, trying to fool anyone they can to make a buck. However, there are lots of actions a travel vendor can take to minimize the negative impact. Many of these actions hinge on alerting and educating the customer, but there are ways companies can step up their defenses to protect consumers – after all, where would any company be without customers?
- Actively Monitor and Neutralize External Threats: Many security teams think that they cannot control what is happening outside the perimeter of their network. However, this is not true. A preemptive security approach can ensure that external threats are identified, disrupted and taken down before they can cause harm to a customer.
- Secure Payment Solutions: Ensure clients use secure payment gateways and implement protocols for verifying payments and refunds. Make sure these payment platforms are hard to spoof and include scam warnings to increase vigilance.
- Customer Verification and Communication: It isn’t always convenient, but verifying customer identities and establishing secure communication channels to prevent account takeovers and fraudulent requests is critical.
- Education is Key: Provide comprehensive security training resources for your customers. Keep them aware of the latest scams, red flags, and prevention strategies. By taking the initiative to ensure their security and privacy, your organization is improving your customer service reputation and reducing liability.
- Data Protection: Staying up-to-date on data protection regulations and implementing measures to safeguard customer information go a long way to ensure customer privacy and security.
It isn’t just up to the traveler anymore
How did that opening story end?
Imagine you are the customer again (just for a few more sentences!). The dream vacation you found requires you to click on a link redirecting you to the special deal. However, when you click, you get a HTTP status code “404 Not Found”. Fortunately for you, this site no longer exists. Why? It wasn’t real in the first place!
The site was taken down before it could steal your money and ruin your family vacation. The disappointment of missing that (fake) deal is much less painful than losing thousands of dollars AND the vacation. The travel vendor protected its brand, had the fraudulent spoofed website taken down and by extension, saved you from a scam. That’s a win-win scenario!
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There is a lot the consumer can do to protect themselves from travel scams by simply educating themselves. However, it becomes the responsibility of travel companies to aid in the battle by making customer protections a priority. Customers may own the responsibility for their wallet, but companies own their brand and likeness. Much can be done to protect customers by way of defending external corporate assets like websites, landing pages, login portals and payment gateways.
What’s more, doing more to educate customers on the risks and signs of online travel scams can do a lot to improve a travel vendor’s standing with them and prevent unhappy outcomes. Help them manage expectations: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. We all need that reminder from time to time!
By preemptively addressing external, Internet-based threats and equipping customers with the right knowledge and tools, travel vendors can play a vital role in safeguarding travelers and fostering trust in the travel industry. Trust is a valuable commodity, often in even shorter supply than ultra-cheap travel deals!
Media Contact
Andy Tzortzinis
Director of Brand and Product Marketing
BforeAI
[email protected]