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Big rise in fraud attacks against airlines
Fraud attack rates against airlines have risen dramatically over the last year while attacks on the hotel sector have fallen.
According to the latest Fraud Attack Index from e-commerce fraud prevention specialists, Forter, attack rates on airlines have jumped 61%.
Forter said the increase can likely be attributed to the rise in loyalty programme issues and some related data breaches.
These include the British Airways breach that impacted customer information from around 380,000 booking transactions made in the summer of 2018.
"With such immense wealths of data available, fraudsters are focusing their attentions on account-based attacks and other forms of abuse in addition to transactional fraud attacks," said the report.
Meanwhile, there has been a 10% drop in the number of fraud attacks against the hotel sector.
"Hotels have introduced friction-free experiences in order to provide their customers benefits and the best services. However, as a result of these more seamless experiences, there was a rise in fraud in this area, followed by countered efforts to increase friction in order to deter these fraudsters, thus the small decrease in rates," the report explained.
Fraud attacks against car rental firms, trains and buses have increased by 38%.
"This increase is attributed to the fact that car rentals and ride services apply less friction in their platforms – ease of pick up in parking, no ID required, etc. – in order to remain competitive in the market and’¨for the perceived better customer experience," said Forter.
"The push for an excellent and friction-free customer experience has created vulnerabilities in these platforms, which fraudsters have been targeting.
Across all industries, there has been a significant rise in loyalty fraud of 89%.
"A clear trend in online fraud is emerging," said Michael Reitblat, CEO and Co-Founder of Forter.
"The industry as a whole has done a tremendous job detecting and preventing payment fraud at the point of transaction. This eliminates the amateurs. We’re seeing fraudsters now shift their efforts earlier in the customer journey, gaining access to consumers’ accounts."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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