Designer Travel managing director Amanda Matthews has warned the industry to be alert to “smarter” fraudsters after her agency was conned out of £4,616.
The business was forced to reimburse the sum following a chargeback request after two women booked a week-long trip to Jamaica using a stolen Bank of Ireland debit card. The fraudsters made their enquiry with a Designer Travel homeworker several weeks before the August 25 departure date.
Matthews highlighted three ways in which she said this fraud booking was unusual: it wasn’t last-minute; the fraudsters used a debit card rather than a credit card; and they readily supplied their passport details.
“These fraudsters are getting smarter and smarter,” she added.
The women, who claimed to be from Bournemouth and Eastbourne, booked a Tui package trip to the Hotel Riu Montego Bay, flying with Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow.
Designer Travel became aware of the fraud on August 30 after a chargeback was issued while the two women were still overseas.
“We’re out of pocket by £4,616,” said Matthews, who teamed up with the homeworker to report the fraud to authorities in the UK and Jamaica, as well as the affected suppliers.
Matthews believes the chances of recovering the money are “pretty much zero”, but she urged the travel industry to be more vigilant and has called for greater levels of cooperation when fraud is detected.
“We need to get smarter as an industry by working together in these situations,” she said, adding she is supportive of knowledge-sharing efforts and has used social media to highlight the fraudulent clients.
Anti-fraud group Prevention of Fraud in Trade (Profit) manages a database of confirmed fraudsters, allowing travel firms to carry out research on potential clients.
Profit chairman Barry Gooch said: “Travel companies need to be alert for circumstances that don’t seem right and, in those cases, either carry out further checks or discontinue the booking.”
He added: “It is better to turn down a suspicious £4,000 booking than have the far greater cost of dealing with that transaction if it goes wrong.”
Action Fraud acting director Claire Webb confirmed Designer Travel’s case was being assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police.
The Bank of Ireland said it was unable to comment, but it takes criminal activity “very seriously”. Tui was also approached for comment.