Warning that artificial intelligence ‘driving new wave of travel fraud’

Agents are being urged to be more alert about scams as fraudsters become increasingly convincing, thanks to advances in AI.

Amanda Matthews, co-owner of Designer Travel, warned in her column for Travel Weekly that the travel agent community has reached a “tipping point”, and the sector needs to be “more vigilant than ever”.

Steve Howell, head of Barclays threat intelligence told the Barclays Travel Forum last month: “The big challenge we see is around identity. It’s really at the forefront of attacks [and] a lot of that is down to AI, which is making copying identity really easy.

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“We see a lot of fraud now involving impersonation. The number-one safety thing to be conscious of is the need to verify  who you’re speaking to.”

Matthews said the agency sector is shifting “rapidly”, with the “increasing ease” of becoming an agent meaning barriers to entry have “vanished”.

“When you combine this with advances in AI-generated deception and a global spike in cybercrime, we must have our wits about us at all times,” she added, noting her luxury agency had had to “navigate” several instances of fraud over the past year.

She said professional fraudsters often “groom” agents by researching personal and professional life on social media to create “a false sense of trust” before making a last-minute booking. 

“This aligns perfectly with the prime timeframe for a chargeback to be processed before the travel has even concluded,” she said, urging agents to request bank transfers for last-minute travel and to act like private investigators to verify clients.

Third-party card fraud is another problem, she added, commenting: “We have even witnessed cases where individuals pose as independent agents, using our secure payment links to pay for their own holidays using their unsuspecting clients’ card details.”

Meanwhile, “friendly fraud” is increasing, with holidaymakers approaching credit card companies to initiate a chargeback, claiming services were defective.

“The current system is heavily weighted against the merchant. Card companies often trigger a chargeback automatically, regardless of the evidence,” Matthews said.

She urged the industry to lobby credit card companies to be required “to investigate the validity of a claim before snatching funds back from small businesses”.

The warnings came as French aerospace and defence group Thales identified the retail and travel sectors as “the most-targeted industries” for ‘bad bot’ activity; travel accounting for 17% of all attacks and retail 24%. 

More: Comment: We should all share knowledge to help in fight against fraud