Abta is alerting its members to the problems of fraudsters in travel – while trying to keep the issues in perspective and balance the risks.
Danny Waine, head of membership at Abta, told a Travel Weekly webcast that the association is highlighting the types of scams that can affect agents while making sure security measures don’t deter bookings.
“The prevention and the perspective are really important,” he said.
“We don’t want to stop people from booking holidays, because they’re worried that they’re going to be impacted by this as well.
“From an Abta perspective, we’re trying to make sure that we help members and put those things in place to prevent the fraud, but also we want consumers to continue booking.”
He said the nature of travel fraud has “evolved” thanks to post-Covid trends such as the number of new recruits in the sector, working from home and new technology.
As well as raising awareness, Abta is urging agents to report incidents to bodies such as Action Fraud and giving guidance on fraud prevention.
A fraud session has been added to the next Abta travel finance conference, and will feature Barry Gooch, chairman of Prevention of Fraud in Trade (Profit).
Jackie Steadman, owner of TravelTime World, suggested to Waine that the issue should be added to the agenda for Abta’s regional meetings.
“It’s one of those things that if members want to talk about it, then of course. It’s one of many things that, as travel businesses, we’re all dealing with right now,” he replied.
Waine also praised Jetset, which has introduced Pin numbers for agencies to use when they call to book with the operator, in a bid to tackle fraudulent callers posing as agents.
Adrian Smyth, sales director at Jetset, told the webcast how the system works and why it was introduced earlier this year.
Waine said some operators might be wary of putting in an extra step for agents when booking by phone but added: “It’s great that Jetset have done this, and they’re leading the way on it.
“I would encourage more tour operators to do that, because it protects all of us.”
Commenting on Jetset’s Pin system, Gooch told the webcast: “Even if it did slightly slow down the booking, it’s much more costly to deal with the fallout from a fraud.
“A small delay, even on high volumes of bookings, is probably worth [it] for the avoidance of that downstream issue.”
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