Speaking at the Jet2holidays conference on Wednesday (16 November), the operator’s fraud and chargeback manager Liz Holloway said hard-up consumers were likely to be more susceptible to "too good to be true" offers over the coming months.
Holloway said fraudsters would look, in particular, to "exploit" smaller businesses that have less fraud prevention infrastructure. She highlighted several key trends agents should be vigilant to, including an increase in fraudulent bookings being made over the phone rather than online.
Details agents should look out for, she said, include addresses on bookings that don’t appear to correspond with the customer’s chosen departure airport, and email addresses that don’t look like they belong to the person on the booking.
Other emerging tactics include making fraudulent bookings look more like family bookings by altering passengers’ dates of birth, and clients wanting to pay with multiple cards, highlighting a £14,000 fraudulent booking where five different cards from several different countries – including the UK, Mexico and Australia – were used.
Holloway said if agents were in any doubt, they should seek to get these clients in to pay their balances in person. She said fraudulent card details could be bought online for as little as £5.
Fraudulent bookings, Holloway continued, currently tend to be of higher value for higher-end resorts on a higher board basis, often booked last-minute for slightly shorter durations – typically a week, or even just for three to four days.
Holloway urged agents not to "play detective" and instead alert police and Action Fraud if they are the victims of fraud, warning fraudsters were almost always linked to larger, more dangerous criminal networks.
She said vigilance was the best defence against fraud, with most cases likely to be complete write-offs and the best chance of any recourse coming through the courts and a proceeds of crime order.
