As the busiest season for non-business travel, Christmas presents a great fraud risk for operators - a risk that is only worsened by swelling costs.
The folks at Cybersource reckon a few pointers will ensure only customers feel the good will, not the criminals.
So, Dr Akif Khan, head of client and technical services, presents 12 top tips for preventing fraudsters endangering your profits.
Home for the holidays
Don't be fooled by family bookings. Some fraudsters will make family bookings including an infant ticket in an attempt to make it look harmless. They'll end up travelling alone on the day and you'll risk transporting one fraudster and an empty seat. Keep your guard up even when the booking looks like a wholesome family holiday.
One size does not fit all
There will a huge variety in the risk that a travel merchant faces. For example, transporting a fraudster across the world in business class will be more of a profit loss then transporting a fraudster across the Channel. Make sure you segregate your risk management, and have different sets of rules and thresholds for the different aspects of your business.
Be data savvy
Travel bookings have a very rich set of data for fraud screening compared to normal ecommerce such as time till departure, origin/destination airports, one-way or return, frequent flyer numbers, etc. Make sure you are getting the most out of data by checking that your fraud screening system can handle it. Factor it into the decision making process to beat fraud.
Make a list, and check it twice
Your fraud screening system is only as good as the data you feed it. Make sure that all the data from your bookings are correctly mapped, and that you are giving your screening system the best possible chance of identifying the bad transactions.
Christmas abroad: it could be costing you
The world is getting smaller. Stolen card details used on your site may have been sold over the internet to someone else on the other side of the world. Make sure your fraud screening system looks for fraud patterns worldwide, not just in the UK.
Fatten the Christmas bonus: keep your fraud lean
You and the rest of the travel industry need to be trimming back on overspending, not just the turkey. Work out how much fraud is actually costing your business by looking at more than just chargebacks. Look at the costs of automated fraud screening, manual review and the cost of chargeback management process. You may be able to decrease the cost of fraud by streamlining the fraud screening process, giving you more time to play Santa: delivering loved ones all over the world.
Give the gift of time
Christmas travel can be a bit of a headache. Your customers are trying to make it home to their families and are busy! Neither of you benefit if you have to wait for a decision on their transaction. Make sure your fraud screen is giving you real-time decisions.
Keep in touch with the family
If you are taking bookings online and by phone, does your fraud screening work in real-time across both channels? If someone was just rejected from your website and then immediately tried using the same card through your call centre under a different name, would you spot it?
Christmas is global and so are you
Bookings from abroad are necessary in the travel industry, but also terrifying because of the potential for fraud.But modern fraud screening systems can manage transactions from all over the world and a wide array of payment types.
Don't play Santa alone, get help!
You don't need to protect against fraudsters by yourself. Implement Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. While sometimes controversial, if implemented correctly and smartly, the schemes provide an extra layer of defense with minimal impact to the booking experience. This will provide a useful liability shift against fraud for those orders that make it through your screening.
Make sure your moving the right people
With the pressure on the travel industry this Christmas, it's important to be confident of your customers' bookings. Device fingerprinting can tell you more about the PC used to make an order: like whether it is the same machine that a regular customer usually uses. If there are other telltale signs that a transaction may be fraudulent, this can confirm your suspicions.
Find out who is naughty or nice
Don't assume the same set of fraud screening rules that have worked well for you during the year will work for you over Christmas. Use your data and resources to find out who's being bad or good.
Leave a comment