The travel industry is revamping with a projection to reach $716.80 billion by the end of 2022. After the COVID-19 restrictions ended, it is soaring back, expecting exponential growth. However, fraud is simultaneously taking off as airlines and travellers can prove to be of great value. Creating counterfeit identities, illicit ticket purchases, card-not-present, account takeovers, and abuse of loyalty programs are some of the most prominent threats.
The increase in identity theft is reshaping customer demands. To ensure security, they expect touchless payments, digital check-ins, and efficient tourist authentication systems. Integrating ID verification solutions help the travel sector and its affiliates to win in the juggling between fraud prevention and improving customer experience while accelerating conversion rates.
Travel Industry and the Challenges in Affiliated Sectors
Since its digitization, the travel industry has been on a rollercoaster of challenges, from ensuring frictionless onboarding and improving data security to countering the spike in illicit actions. Fraudsters pose as tourism agents or impersonate agencies to convince passengers by offering them bonuses or discounts.
After the disclosure of personal information, the customers are left with nothing but financial losses. Moreover, fraudsters use confidential details to either book tickets for themselves, avail loyalty benefits, or sell them for high prices on the dark web.
Use of Unfamiliar ATMs
Impersonating travel agents is not only the only challenge passengers using unfamiliar ATMs also pose enough risk. These systems lack secure networks and identity verification security checks that increase account takeovers. For cybercriminals, it is easier to extract credit-debit card details through these ATMs.
Fraudsters later use them to commit synthetic identity fraud and book hotel rooms, purchase tickets, or pay for car rentals. Furthermore, the actual account holder stays unaware of suspicious transactions due to inadequate ID verification mechanisms. As a result, travel sector affiliates face an increase in customer distrust.
Challenges Faced by Affiliated Sectors of Travel Companies
Identity authentication breach is the most prevalent during holiday seasons when passengers are moving across countries in billions. While the crowding instances make the detection of suspicious activities difficult, it also paves the way for fraudsters to exploit tourism affiliates. frantic rebookings, unsecured Wi-Fi connections, flight delays, and late airport arrivals are some of the prominent instances.
Illicit actions have diverse effects on every affiliate from airlines and hotels to car rental service providers. Read on to learn more about the challenges in these sectors and how AI-powered identity verification solutions counter them:
Ticketing and Miles Abuse in Airlines
Traveling by air is one of the most common ways of transportation. While it is less time-consuming, tickets comparatively cost more than other methods such as buses and trains. With a total of 3781 million passengers traveling worldwide, airlines are becoming more widely trusted. Similarly, to meet changing customer demands, companies are offering remote booking, online ID verification, e-payments, and mile benefits.
The benefits given by airlines are of equal attraction for fraudsters. They abuse miles to save them an additional flight and breach crucial information databases to misuse the details. Hence, airlines require robust biometric identity verification systems to authenticate passengers. With facial recognition, they can validate payments while liveness detection ensures the real-time presence of customers.
Payment Scams and Illicit Reservations in Hotels
The hospitality sector is another target of fraudsters to make counterfeit bookings and illicit payments. They use stolen credit/debit cards or personal information to commit CNP fraud. In both ways, they easily bypass identity authentication and make transactions for booking expensive rooms.
Integrating AI-powered identity verification services can help hotels, resorts, and other accommodation providers to enhance their fraud prevention controls. With remote customer authentication, they can cut down the hassle of physical interaction. They can also prevent payment scams and offer the hospitality experience of a lifetime to legitimate travelers.
High-Value Asset Exploitation in Car Rental Services
Travellers do not often prefer taking their own vehicle, however, they rent cars. Conveyance service providers offer several options. Passengers can move directly to their cars, show driver’s licenses, and take vehicles by signing a contract. In this process, ID verification becomes challenging as relying on a simple forgery-prone paper is not enough.
With advanced identity theft protection solutions in place, car rental service providers can run thorough scans on passengers. They can prevent asset damage, theft, and late returns. Furthermore, drivers’ monitoring through in-built AI cameras is another potency.
Concluding Remarks
The travel industry requires robust identity verification services to limit tourism fraud. These AI-powered IDV solutions come with top-notch measures that increase precautions against fraudsters. With real-time selfie-based authentication, facial feature verification for payments, and liveness detection to ensure presence, ID verification services leverage risk-free transportation. As a result, the travel sector, along with its affiliates, can retain customer-to-industry trust.
