The travel industry is certainly one of the sectors most vulnerable to fraud, with scams rising 18% through the summer peak season and 28% within the winter peak season in 2024, in accordance with a brand new report.
The report, published last Tuesday by the Mastercard Economics Institute, showed that fraud related to travel agency and tour company bookings is greater than 4 times higher than the fraud average of other industries.
“Once paid, the tour may either never occur or be drastically different from what was promised,” it said.
Nevertheless, scam risks vary significantly from city to city, said David Mann, chief economist on the Asia-Pacific division of the Mastercard Economics Institute.
“In certain destinations, you’ll be able to find yourself seeing lots more of the fraud coming from the travel and the tour company side. In other cities, it might probably even be in things like food services. So example, over in Los Angeles, [food is] the most important portion of where we see a few of the fraud,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
In accordance with Mastercard’s data, tourists reported the bottom rates of fraud in:
- San Francisco, U.S.
- Dublin, Ireland
- Seoul, South Korea
- Budapest, Czech Republic
- Edinburgh, Scotland
Nevertheless, travelers to those cities reported higher levels of fraud:
- Cancun, Mexico
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Bangkok, Thailand
The style of scams commonly reported in cities also varies, with taxi and automotive rental problems comprising just 2% of reported fraud cases in Hong Kong and Barcelona, but 66% in Jakarta, Indonesia, the report showed.
Fraud in food services is more distinguished within the U.S. and Middle East, comprising 63% of reported cases in Latest York City, it showed. That features restaurants that overcharge for food, add unauthorized suggestions, or that steal travelers’ bank card details, in accordance with a Mastercard representative.
Before the trip begins
Beyond peak seasons, travel fraud can be on the rise through the booking stage, Mann said.
Trip planning fraud rose greater than 12% last yr, the report stated, be it via doctored photographs, malicious “confirmation” links that expose banking details, or other types of trickery.
Travelers should be careful for unusually low prices and summer rates which might be “too good to be true,” especially in popular tourist destinations that attract large crowds, the report stated.
To guard themselves against fraudulent activity, travelers can arrange digital wallets, buy travel insurance or book trips using a bank card with fraud protection, it said.
