The travel industry is one of the sectors most susceptible to fraud, with scams rising 18% during the summer peak season and 28% in the winter peak season in 2024, according to a new report.
The report, published last Tuesday by the Mastercard Economics Institute, showed that fraud related to travel agency and tour company bookings is more than four 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.
However, scam risks vary significantly from city to city, said David Mann, chief economist at the Asia-Pacific division of the Mastercard Economics Institute.
“In certain destinations, you can end up seeing a lot more of the fraud coming from the travel and the tour company side. In other cities, it can even be in things like food services. So a good example, over in Los Angeles, [food is] the biggest portion of where we see some of the fraud,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
According to Mastercard’s data, tourists reported the lowest rates of fraud in:
- San Francisco, U.S.
- Dublin, Ireland
- Seoul, South Korea
- Budapest, Hungary
- Edinburgh, Scotland
However, travelers to these cities reported higher levels of fraud:
- Cancun, Mexico
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Bangkok, Thailand
The type of scams commonly reported in cities also varies, with taxi and car 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 prominent in the U.S. and Middle East, comprising 63% of reported cases in New York City, it showed. That includes restaurants that overcharge for food, add unauthorized tips, or that steal travelers’ credit card details, according to a Mastercard representative.
Before the trip begins
Beyond peak seasons, travel fraud is also on the rise during the booking stage, Mann said.
Trip planning fraud rose more than 12% last year, the report stated, be it via doctored photographs, malicious “confirmation” links that expose banking details, or other forms of trickery.
Travelers should watch out for unusually low prices and summer rates that are “too good to be true,” especially in popular tourist destinations that attract large crowds, the report stated.
To protect themselves against fraudulent activity, travelers can set up digital wallets, buy travel insurance or book trips using a credit card with fraud protection, it said.
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect Budapest’s location.
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