The lid is being lifted on fraud in the travel industry in a major awareness campaign spearheaded by Travel Weekly.
After more than a decade battling fraud, an industry-wide anti-fraud group has decided to go public with the work it does ahead of an ABTA seminar on fraud in May.
The start of our campaign also comes ahead of the busy Easter and late booking periods that traditionally see a spike in the level of fraudulent activity in the industry.
Teletext compliance manager Barry Gooch, a founding member of the anti-fraud group, said: “Most other industries downplay this issue but this is all about having the confidence to say we are now doing all we can to combat this problem and this ought to be communicated.
“We have realised over the last year we need the rest of the trade on board, that we really ought to be alerting people to help them understand how to avoid fraud. By working with Travel Weekly we can do it without hitting confidence in the industry.”
It is hoped by bringing the issue out into the open, the true level of fraud, which ABTA conservatively estimates directly costs the trade £6 million a year, will become apparent and this might force the authorities to give the problem greater priority.
Greater awareness in the trade about fraud will also help counter the growing threat posed by identity theft and cardholder-not-present fraud, believed to be behind rising fraud in travel, despite the introduction of Chip and PIN technology.
Detective Constable Pete Burns of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Sterling fraud squad said: “The anti-fraud group in travel has done fantastic work. All sectors of commerce need to start working together in this way.”
Travel Weekly will publish a series of articles over the next six weeks. Access all our articles and resources on fraud by going to Travelweekly.co.uk/fraud.