Travel & Tourism
Airline Ticketing Scam Resurfaces After 7 Years
It was reported by a famous international travel news publisher, that ARC have caught a major airline ticketing fraud. According to the industry sources, there were more than 75 instances of fraudulent ticketing with an estimated amount of illegal tickets sales over US$ 1 million.
The investigation officer said that the scammers were using the travel consultants’ and users’ Global Distribution System (GDS) credentials.
To obtain the victim’s GDS credentials, perpetrators were sending phishing emails to their travel agency targets, claiming to be official communications from one of the GDS.
As per sources, fraudulent activity appears to be based in West African countries with tickets being issued for departures from airports in Casablanca, Morocco, Dakar, Senegal, Ivory Coast & other destinations.
Due to their location, perpetrators often succeed in gaining access to an agent’s credentials during the overnight hours in the USA. By the time the agency has opened the following day, the scammer has issued the tickets to their customers. Often those customers have already taken to the sky, leaving the travel agency with a huge debit to the airlines.
The unauthorized ticketing scam’s reemergence follows approximately seven years of dormancy. As per ARC, their fraud investigation team was engaged on the issue from 2009 to 2014, but the scams came to a halt around the time three West African perpetrators were arrested in relation to the scam.
In an interview, the investigation officer said travel advisors can avoid falling victim to this scam by exercising caution. No one should click on a link unless it is in an email they were expecting. Also, travel agents should pay close attention to the sender’s address and be on the lookout for awkward mistakes.
