Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, received 4,244 reports of holiday and travel-related scams for England, Wales and Northern Ireland during the 2021/22 financial year alone – a year during which it must not be forgotten that travel, for the most part, was restricted.

This compares with 6,646 reports during the unrestricted period, from 1 March 2019 to 29 February 2020.

A snap TTG poll in February revealed 60% of agent respondents believe they, or their business, have successfully identified and thwarted a potential fraudulent approach in the past three months, while three-quarters of respondents said fraud was a bigger concern than it was pre-pandemic.

"There’s not a travel company in the UK that isn’t experiencing some kind of fraud at the moment," said Barry Gooch, chair of Prevention of Fraud in Trade (PROFiT), which assists prosecutions and acts as a "broker" between various industry fraud reporting systems.

"It’s always worse every year. It’s completely outstripping the ability of the police to deal with it." Gooch also stressed many seemingly solo scams are linked to organised crime.

Cost of living effect 

Abta, understandably, is concerned. Steve Abrahamson, the association’s head of risk management, believes the situation has been particularly bad recently because "criminals will often look to target peak periods when they know customers are looking for bargains".

The warnings follow concerns voiced at Jet2holidays’ November conference that the cost of living crisis would accelerate "bargain" holiday scams, and news last month of the nine-year jail sentence County Durham "travel agent" Lyne Barlow received for defrauding consumers out of £2.6 million in a Ponzi-style scheme.

These knocks to the trade’s reputation only add to situations where it is the direct target. "This is why I’d never book with an independent travel agent," read one comment in a public Facebook group started by Barlow’s victims.

Several agents responded to defend themselves. Claire Smith, director of Coconut Travel in Hartlepool, said: "All us independent agents are being tarred with the same brush – it makes me sick what she did."

Smith, whose agency is part of the Hays Travel Independence Group and is situated in the same region Barlow lived, told TTG: "My Facebook enquiries have been down, but I do have a shop as well and, since the Lyne Barlow case, there have been more walk-in customers."

Previously, 80% of the agency’s custom was from Facebook; now it is 50% face-to-face, with calls also increasing. Smith believes it’s a confidence issue, particularly with new customers. "Certainly, people in the north-east know about [the case] and have aired their views."

Smith launched her homeworking operation onto the high street a year ago and believes if she hadn’t, her business would be down thanks to Barlow.

"It really, really scares you," she said, adding that since the Thomas Cook collapse, with Covid following immediately after, travel has felt stuck under a "black cloud".

PROFiT’s Gooch warns criminals can also destroy reputations by cloning or hacking legitimate travel businesses’ social media and websites.

It’s just one of the ways the trade is under attack. "We probably get at least two or three [fraudulent] phone calls a month," said Jackie Steadman, director of TravelTime World in Berkhamsted.

"At the moment, as an industry, we’re being targeted because we’re a relatively soft touch." She said agencies in "sleepy little village and towns" were seen as easy pickings.