Frauds prevailing in the travel industry might not come as a surprise for most people because hotel chain and airport scams continue to extort millions from customers. Although travel industry scams have continued to get worse over a period of time due to several cybersecurity breaches and successful fraud attempts. For this reason, most travel companies have adapted passport checks with few other document verifications. It provides security to travel businesses and their customers.
Some latest statistics show a staggering number of frauds that affected millions of travelers around the globe. However, most fraud attempts in the travel industry are related to the stealing of sensitive information, such as payment details and passport numbers. It’s necessary to verify customers through passport checks.
According to phocuswire, “Hilton was mentioned 31% of the times on dark webs hacker forum while Mariott and IHG were mentioned 28% and 19% of the times.
Travel agency scams are prevalent from stolen credit cards and free flights to booking a hotel, stealing identity, etc are committed in an arranged environment. As people confirm their bookings through mobile, it’s expected that frauds in the travel industry would continue to grow.
However, the attempts with large-scale transactions along with the nature of purchasing services online are all contributing towards the fraud attempts in the travel industry. Due to the sensitive nature of the data, it can also attract fraudsters of all kinds that practice malicious activities to commit various forms of fraud.
How Can Travel Companies Avoid Fraud?
It’s best to know the types of frauds currently taking place in the travel industry. Because a fraud attempt towards a hotel industry is different from the airline or cruise industry. As various organizations explore new markets, it’s vital for businesses to fully grip the risks or threats that would come their way. In many ways, as fraud is different from each industry – it becomes even more complicated within its categories.
How Fraudsters Could Steal Travel ID?
Every year scammers manage new methods to steal the travel ID of passengers to commit fraudulent activities. This usually happens in more than a few ways but some AI-powered document verification prevents this from happening. A passport check stays as one of the most important ways to deter any fraud attempts.
Fraudsters Can Get To You Through These Ways?
Hotel Check-in
When you check into the hotel, most often it’s possible to rub shoulders with a stranger that doesn’t have good intentions. They could hear you sharing the credit card number while talking over the phone. In another instance, they could see the credit card or passport information from a few feet apart – when the person on a counter is about to swipe a card or verify the details of your passport. It’s best to incorporate credit card and ID document verification methods for passport checks and credit card checks. This would help to reduce customer dissatisfaction and increase hotel bookings.
Airport Terminal Check-in
Most airports are at security risk during terminal check-in while collecting passenger’s data for quick verification. Although most stringent methods of verification, such as AI-powered passport check and document verification could disperse any fraud risks. This would help travel companies to ease the process of customer onboarding and conduct verification without a need to hire resources. It would help in lowering the cost and time with an AI-powered solution. Therefore, airport terminals can ensure strong security checks.
Ride Sharing
Ridesharing has evolved into a multi-million dollar industry within the travelling industry. Most drivers and passengers couldn’t be trusted in a sharing economy. For this reason, ID document verification and AI-powered passport check are necessary and mandatory for the travel industry. It would ensure the security of passengers and help in digital verification at a faster pace than could save both time and money for businesses.
Travel Booking
During travel bookings, companies can simplify and secure the process of check-in and check-out for shoppers. Although, by integrating AI-powered document verification and passport check – travel businesses could reduce the abandonment rate during mobile transactions. It would help businesses to complete the entire process and ensure their online security.
Vacation Rental
By providing ID verification in real-time, many businesses could provide a safe and trusted experience to their customer base. However, it would also ensure that customers are met with appropriate security measures to keep their identity secure. As in a few instances, vacation rental places often claim their property somewhere else while it’s originally located at some other place.
Travel businesses should integrate AI-powered document verification or a passport check to help customers with a simple and easy customer onboarding experience. Moreover, it would provide online travel companies to secure the customer’s check-in and check-out process by validating their identities.