Operators and agencies creating dynamic packages should keep a record of customers’ social media postings if they suspect gastric illness claims made against them are false.
The Midcounties Co-operative Travel told Travel Weekly that it had begun to build up files of evidence about suspected fraudulent claimants, having backed our Fight Fake Claims campaign – launched last week.
Group general manager of travel services Alistair Rowland and head of governance and risk Richard Simpson said the firm had seen a 1,000% increase in claims since 2013 from customers purporting to have been ill on holiday.
Rowland said that although the 100 or so ongoing claims made against Midcounties was a small number in comparison to the larger tour operators, it was still “significant enough to fundamentally change our plans”.
He said: “In the last 12 months we’ve seen a really big increase.”
Midcounties has taken the decision to dispute all the claims it believes to be false. Although more than 100 claims are still active, none have been paid out yet or gone as far as court.
Simpson said: “We are seeing all the same companies [putting the claims in] and all the same solicitors are involved. Every claim is for gastric illness; all are three days after the customers arrived; and they are all happening at places where you can stay all-inclusive.”
Midcounties is urging agencies that dynamically package and smaller operators to take the same stance and not pay out when they suspect claims are false, despite the risk of pricey court costs and the temptation to settle early for less.
Rowland said: “You could call it delay tactics, but we think it’s the right thing to do. We have been going out to get evidence from resorts, asking customers to send us bank statements to show that they’ve been to the pharmacy post-holiday.
Quite a few have dropped their claims because they can’t prove what we’re asking them to.”
The company is advising other operators and agencies to scout out customers on social media to find pictures of them on holiday that prove they were not holed up in bed when they said they were, and track their excursion records to see if any falsehoods are revealed.
“Some of these people are daft enough to leave Facebook profiles with lots of photos of them showing they are not ill when they said they were,” Rowland added.
“It’s important to make sure you explore all the avenues, working with hotels and suppliers, so you have the strongest possible evidence behind you.”
