A potential fraud of £8,000 has been averted after the combined efforts of an agency and operator.
The news follows a warning about a rise in fraud against travel firms, including criminals posing as agents to book with operators.
Jetset, the trade-only flights and holidays specialist, received a call purporting to be from an agent at Saddleworth Travel, which just before Christmas was defrauded of £5,800.
The call centre became suspicious after the ‘agent’ rang in the early evening for business-class seats the next morning from Dubai to Madrid and a five-star hotel. There was no caller ID, meaning the caller had blocked their phone number from showing up at the call centre.
“Thankfully, we have staff who have been with us a long time and know how to approach fraud. Our account manager contacted Saddleworth Travel to verify the booking,” said sales director Adrian Smyth, who cited the value of agents and operators working together to fight fraud.
Jetset has been targeted three times in the past week by a bogus agent, with all three attempts successfully averted, including a £14,000 fraud at the weekend. The £8,000 booking was voided once the agency confirmed it had not called Jetset. Saddleworth owner Peter Mills said: “I’m pleased the staff at Jetset had the awareness to realise it was dodgy and got in touch.”
The scare came just weeks after the agency lost £5,800 on a fraudulent booking to Cape Verde. A customer rang asking for a hotel for four, claiming a hotel booking website had failed to inform the group until the last minute that the property they booked was closed.
“It was all very believable, and my employee found an all-inclusive five-star hotel over New Year,” said Mills. “[But] in January, we got a chargeback from the credit card company saying the [real] card owner had challenged the payment as not theirs.”
The agency, which is reporting the crime through Action Fraud, warned other agents to be on their guard. Mills said: “This has made us super-wary. We’re now not doing over-the-phone payments with people we don’t know.”