SHORT lead times, requests
to pay by credit card, and
emails from generic gmail
accounts are all potential
alarm bells for scams.
The most common email
scam follows a pattern
that some agents are by
now all too familiar with.
Michelle explains: “It’s
usually someone trying to
travel from Johannesburg to
somewhere in Africa, and
then back to Johannesburg.
And they are normally
looking to travel quite
soon, within the next three
or four days, and want to
know if they can pay via
credit card.” In this scam,
the scamster useds a
fraudulent credit card and
the agent risks forking out
for the tickets once they
have been flown.
“The emails are almost
always identical,” another
agent told TNW, adding that
he received as many as four
or five of them a week. The
emails are from a generic
gmail account, with a first
name and surname as
part of the address. “They
will always ask the same
question: do you accept
credit card payments?”
These should be
immediate red flags for
agents. “We have specific
checks in place to avoid
being caught out by things
like this,” continued
Michelle. “And all our
agents attend fraud training,
not just for emails but also
for walk-in customers who
try to book travel on fake
IDs or stolen credit cards.”
Another form of email
scam involves receiving
emails that appear to be
from a valid corporate, even
a previous corporate client.
Once the ticket is booked
and flown, the agent
invoices the client for the
tickets, only to find the
‘client’ has no link to the
corporate.
In January TNW reported
on an email sent to an
agent, appearing to be
from the ceo of a company
whose travel account she
had previously managed.
The agent issued eight
tickets per day for the client
in the week and a half that
followed. When the agent
contacted the ceo about
settlement, the ceo advised
her that the flights had
not been booked for the
company’s employees and
that it sounded like fraud.
Ryan said in these types
of scams, something agents
should look out for was
whether the correspondence
was from a country other
than that where the
business was based.
“If a company is based
in England and the email
addresses are usually
.co.uk, they may be
changed to .com. That’s a
red flag and can be easy
to miss.”
While there is no way to
guarantee that some scams
won’t slip through, Ryan
says it is important to have
a system in place to help
agents escalate concerns
properly. “We have a system
where, if an agent feels
uncomfortable with anything
in the booking, they can
issue a red flag enquiry,
alerting other agents and
people in other departments
that this specific email
address is dodgy and
shouldn’t be used. All
these things can be further
verified by calling head
office, who will contact the
company to find out if the
person enquiring is actually
trying to book travel.”
