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Uzone.id – The tourism industry is the second industry with the highest rate of suspected fraud worldwide, at 36 percent. TransUnion’s 2024 State of Omnichannel Fraud Report reveals that fraudsters attempt to create fraudulent accounts in roughly one out of every seven new account openings.
Then, cyberattacks on hotels have led to massive data breaches around the time of 2023-2024. Cybercriminals use stolen data to create fake accounts and commit fraud within the industry.
In 2023, data breaches at MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment properties in Las Vegas led to five lawsuits against the companies.
The prosecution asserted that an unknown party compromised their personal identity information, after they had entrusted the hotel with its confidential use. Prosecutors claim that MGM and Caesars should have done their job well in protecting guests’ data.
What it’s Travel Fraud?
Travel fraud is a fraudulent tactic carried out with targeted tourists both before, during, and after the trip. The forms of fraud include fake travel agents, accommodation scams, flight tickets, travel insurance, and fraud at tourist attractions.
Fraudulent activities have caused financial losses, damaged voter reputations, and may lead to legal action against MGM and Caesars. These incidents, driven by advancing technology and sophisticated tactics, are expected to rise.
Fraudsters target airlines at a 60 percent correlation with transaction volume, indicating they focus on higher transaction periods. Usually, scammers will target airline tickets booked through online travel booking platforms. They abuse loyalty programs, steal credit cards, and other data to book free rides.
Why do travel fraud target people who want to go on vacation?
The tourism industry is a prime target for scammers because this industry has a high number of transactions, including bookings, reservations, and purchases. In addition, the timing of the spike is easy to predict so that fraudulent activities are easier to carry out.
Businesses in this field also have complex supply chains. The tourism industry involves many intermediaries, such as travel agents, operators, and online booking platforms so that the transaction verification process creates opportunities to be exploited.
On the other hand, although it sounds trivial, tourism businesses often accept multiple payment methods so the potential for attacks increases, and transactions are often cross-border which makes fraud difficult to detect.
Types of scam
There are many types of travel scams, first of all the most common are scams under the guise of travel agents. Usually, these scammers lure victims with cheap offers.
Then, accommodation and flight ticket fraud is often found. Both offer cheap tickets for too many facilities. This is common if potential buyers buy from unauthorized sources.
Last but not least, is travel insurance scams. This is the type of fraud that is probably the most dangerous. These scams target the financial gains of insurance companies through false claims and information manipulation.
In fact, not a few travel service providers work together to make false claims about events that never happened. If caught, it is likely that the perpetrators of fraud will face fines, prison sentences, and lawsuits for their illegal actions.
How to protect yourself
Anyone can become a victim of travel scams. For this reason, protecting personal information is essential to avoid identity theft. A passport is the most important document that you must keep.
Second, remember to protect yourself when using wi-fi. Hackers can steal information through public wi-fi tapping. It’s better to use a private VPN connection when traveling for privacy security.
Then, please be careful when ordering through the booking site. Some booking sites have experienced data breaches over the past few years, so please avoid certain sites.
Finally, when traveling you may have valuable digital items for criminals, one of which is loyalty points and membership cards. Summarizing from various sources, the value of unused rewards across airlines stands at $27.5 billion.
This then lures scammers to look for ways to take over the reward account. They then sell it at the lowest price on the dark web, or use it to buy a wide variety of retail merchandise.
