Sheriff’, Sharon Stander, has
warned both hotels and agents
to be alert for hotel voucher
fraud.
Sharon says a fraudulent
hotel voucher was issued
using her agency’s name
(Bangy Travel) and used at
a hotel where Bangy had no
reservation.
The fraudster arrived at the
hotel after-hours and handed
the voucher to the hotel staff.
Sharon believes that there is
either existing software that
allows fraudsters to change
details on QuickTrav vouchers,
or that legitimate vouchers are
being intercepted from hotel
reservation emails or client
emails.
But Chris Curtis, finance
and operations director at
Quick Software, says access
to the QuickTrav voucher
system is restricted to agency
staff within the protected
network only, and that voucher
PDFs are encrypted and
non-editable. He adds that
vouchers are generally emailed
direct to the hotel from the
QuickTrav system. Vouchers
carry the hotel reservation
number for the hotel to agree
to their own system.
Chris says for this type of
fraud, perpetrators would need
to manually and fraudulently
produce a similar-looking
voucher, then present it to
an unsuspecting hotel after
hours. The hotel would have
to not be alert to a suspiciouslooking voucher, presented by
hand instead of email, and fail
to check that the reservation
reference on the voucher
matched its own system.
Agents face challenges,
Sharon says, because hotels
require vouchers as part of
their confirmation process
and guarantee but clients
sometimes check in afterhours when agents and staff
are not always available to
validate the voucher.
A gm of a Johannesburg
hotel, who wished to remain
anonymous, says systems
should be in place to prevent
this type of fraud. She says
hotels should only accept
vouchers from agencies with
whom they have a relationship,
backed up by credit clearance
from the bank. If they are
unhappy with an agency’s
credit application, they should
deal with that agency on a prepayment basis only.
