The corporate sector is using technology to streamline its processes and attract new clients more efficiently. Nonetheless, everything has a bad use, and new technology is no exception. While businesses are focused on finding better ways to improve operations, fraudsters employ ingenious strategies to achieve their illicit goals. In the internet age, no sector is immune to frauds, and the tourism industry, unsurprisingly, has some terrible problems.
It’s gotten incredibly easy to plan vacations online; however, airports and resorts have recently reported some severe illicit activity. The travel business has seen a variety of trends, as well as some new types of fraud. So, they can implement an AI-based solution to tackle possible internet scams. Keep reading to explore the most recent travel frauds and ways to combat them.
Most Popular Travel Scams
These are the typical frauds that are reported in every country. Below are the frequently reported airline and hotel frauds that must be addressed.
Payment frauds
It is the most typical travel fraud, particularly in hotels. Resorts are having a lot of trouble because of fake travel firms. Tourists arrive with forged hotel reservations, and the management is responsible for the expenditures. Consequently, they would lose a large number of clients as well as harm the company’s reputation. Furthermore, fraudsters use chargebacks to get free hotel services. Besides these different payment difficulties, this industry also witnesses a lot of people paying with false or stolen bank cards.
Scams at ATMs:
ATM scrubbers use a variety of techniques to take your card and other financial information. A classic travel fraud involves attaching a skimmer device to the ATM’s mouth. When clients insert their credit or debit cards into the machine, it will discreetly record the information.
Another variation of this travel scam involves inserting a sticky or plastic slip into the slot, causing your card to become trapped in the machine. Once again, a “Good Samaritan” may be on hand to “assist” you and may recommend that you call the phone number on the machine for assistance, which is often a bogus number.
Fake Public Officials:
You’d assume that when traveling, you’d be able to trust the cops or security. Fake officials who seek to view your documents will appear on trains and on the streets from time to time. They demand a bribe to get them back. If you suspect something isn’t quite right, don’t hang up your paperwork.
Currency Exchanges Scams:
It always starts the same way: you arrive in a new location knowing that one of the first things you’ll do is exchange your money, and then someone approaches you and says they know where you can do it for the best price. Then that person either gives you fake dollars or asks for a high exchange rate.
Money Laundering through Hotels
The practice of concealing unlawfully obtained funds is known as money laundering. This is performed in three steps by launderers: placement, layering, then integration. Hoteling is among the biggest targets for scammers who pile money in various sectors. To stop dirty money from reaching the hotel records, the management should identify laundered money as soon as possible.
Money launderers, on the other hand, employ fabricated names to get off with black money. As a result, airport security procedures must be improved to combat clever money launderers.
Identity theft
Customers today want everything to be online, and the travel industry is doing everything it can to meet that demand. It does, however, provide an opportunity for imposters to carry out their malicious schemes. Customers can avoid the inconveniences of physical booking and “over-the-counter payments” by using digital check-ins. They are no more required to get their room keys physically. While apps for many purposes are a wonderful consumer engagement tool, they also allow criminals to create false identities and steal passwords from other real customers. The stolen identification information is then utilized to obtain loyalty cards and other perks, leaving the management vulnerable to chargebacks and other scams.
A similar issue affects airport employees. Many criminals use counterfeit names and passports to book tickets and because there are no effective document verification mechanisms, they escape after committing all of the fatal crimes.
Facial Recognition- A Great Solution to Avoid Travel frauds
After fraudsters get what they planned for, the tourism sector has to deal with a slew of issues. Not only has the industry suffered financial losses, but it has also suffered compromised company image and client distrust. It is very difficult for the sector to recoup from the loss; consequently, a strong identity verification system is required to keep scammers at bay. Facial recognition technology is one approach to combat fraudsters and prevents further losses for airlines and hotels.
Authorities would be able to identify crooks before they create any trouble by conducting facial recognition at hotel and airport entrances.
How Facial Recognition Work
In today’s world, face verification is much more than just recognizing a face. Ai algorithms now support the software, allowing it to detect scammers in just a minute. For improved verification results, face recognition employs a variety of Computer algorithms and employs the following methods:
- Skin texture analysis
- Liveness detection
- 3D depth analysis
- Micro-expression analysis
- 3D mapping
These methods ensure that consumers and passengers are present at the time of validation, ensuring that they have been properly verified. Spoof attacks, as well as deep fakes, are a problem these days, but organizations may benefit greatly from modern facial recognition technologies.
Final Thoughts
Not only are the businesses benefiting from technological advancements, but criminal activity has expanded dramatically as well. Although the travel industry has digitalized its procedures, ineffective verification techniques are not working to keep clients safe. Facial recognition has become one of the strategies that this sector can use to provide more robust security. In a timely manner, the face verification system detects spoof assaults, deep fakes, and fabricated identities. Finally, fraudsters have no way of leaving a country after achieving their wicked desires or defrauding travel businesses for any gain.
