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Contact Us
Need to report fraud? Have questions about fraud?
Phone: 703-816-8137
Fax: 703-816-8138
Email: FIFP@ARCcorp.com
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Fraud Prevention
ARC is dedicated to preventing fraud. Learn more
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ASK YOURSELF
WHY IS SOMEONE FROM OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES
APPROACHING YOU SPECIFICALLY?
THINK BEFORE YOU SELL!
One or more of the following features have been found to be common to multiple instances of fraud perpetrated against travel agents. Other patterns identified by ARC alerting agents to the possibility of compromised credit cards include:
- First contact made via email or the TTY service (for the hearing impaired)
- Return e-mail address is a “free” service, e.g. Hotmail, gmail, etc.
- “Customer” requests that tickets be issued for other people
- First point of departure is outside of the U.S.
- Departure date is close to the ticket request date
- “Customer” requests that the e-ticket number be immediately e-mailed to them
- Several tickets are purchased with different routings, travel dates, and passenger last names using a single credit card.
- If one credit card is denied, the “customer” provides another card and another until one is “accepted”
- The “customer” may use a religious title (e.g., Pastor Robert) or a religious premise (Missionaries to Africa) or other socially respected professions, e.g., doctors, to establish credibility
- E-mail requests contain obvious spelling errors (e.g. cities and states)
- “Customers” use airport codes in their emails, i.e., asking for tickets from ACC to LHR rather than Accra to London
- “Customer” provides fictitious address and phone number in the United States.
Please share this information with employees and outside sales agents so that they may be aware of possible compromised credit card scenarios and consider the use of the above as a “check-list” for all non-face-to-face transactions. If suspicious, before you issue and release the ticket, check addresses and phone numbers, use the Internet for checking validity (e.g., www.whitepages.com, reverse address and phone number checks) and call the credit card company fraud/security department and ask that they verify with the cardholder that such travel is authorized.
A presence on the Internet can have significant marketing value to many travel agents. Please note, however, that in some cases
it also aids individuals who are involved in global fraudulent credit card schemes to identify you as a potential target. If approached through
the Internet with a seemingly very attractive business prospect, take the time to ask yourself "Is this deal or business prospect too good to be
true?"
ARC wishes to remind all agents that your agency may be held financially responsible for a credit card transaction - even if you have obtained an approval code - if the credit card used in the transaction turns out to be stolen or otherwise compromised and/or the cardholder denies the charges. The only way to fully protect yourself from potential liability resulting from credit card scams is to obtain a physical imprint of the credit card and the original signature of the cardholder on a Universal Credit Card Charge Form in addition to the approval code. Also, remember to validate the credit card expiration and effective date, ensure that the credit card does not exhibit visible signs of alteration, and compare the signature on the charge form to the signature on the signature panel of the credit card. Verify that they are reasonably similar.
What follows is an example of credit card fraud scams involving individuals operating from South America, Africa, and other foreign venues that continue to effect agents.
An individual (or individuals) claiming to represent a large foreign or domestic business or organization or posing as a representative of a religious group may contact your office by phone or by e-mail through your agency's web site. The individual, who is not known to you, may claim that the organization has employees traveling all over the world and they need a travel agency such as yours to do business in the United States or in your particular state. You may have subsequent contacts by fax, e-mail, or by phone with the individual. However, he/she is probably calling you from a mobile phone or a public phone from a location not known to you. If the contact is by e-mail, you may not have knowledge of where the individual sending the e-mail is actually located.
The individual will request that you issue one or more tickets, PTAs, or electronic tickets (etickets) for passengers other than the cardholders for immediate travel from points located outside your geographic area. The individual may provide you with several credit card account numbers as the form of payment, claiming, for example, that the organization has several credit cards and/or each employee has his/her own credit card. The individual may send you (by fax or mail) copies of the front and back of credit cards, passports, authorizations, and other documents (e.g., corporate resolutions, identifications, birth certificates, college degrees, law degrees, awards, etc.) which you may have requested. Although there is an aura of legitimacy to the contact and the documents provided might look real, you have no way to authenticate the documents. Subsequently, the documents will be proven to be fraudulent or stolen from the unsuspecting cardholder.
If you issue a PTA, e-ticket, or other ARC document without seeing and imprinting the credit card and obtaining an original signature from the cardholder - even if you are able to obtain an approval code through the CRS or from the card company - your agency is at risk of a possible financial loss for the total amount of that ticket. Why? The credit card account information provided to you might be bogus or it may have been stolen from the legitimate cardholder. If the credit card company charges the transaction back to the carrier, or if the cardholder denies the charges, your agency will likely be liable for any chargebacks that result. Travel agents are reminded that while the Internet is a tremendous tool with enormous potential, it is still a non-face-to-face communication link with global reach. Just as with telephone transactions, agents are warned to exercise caution, especially when you do not know your customer. In the prudent exercise of risk management, it is important to remember that an original signed and imprinted credit card charge form bearing the appropriate authorizations (approval codes) is the best protection against potential liability. Simply put, if you, as the point of sale for the airline merchant, do not have a credit card imprint and cardholder signature, you may be providing a service for which neither you nor the airlines will receive payment. Even though you have obtained a credit card authorization code from the credit card company, without the credit card imprint and cardholder signature, you may still not be protected against chargeback liability.
ARC travel agencies who believe they have been approached by individuals who are committing or attempting to commit any type of credit card scam or other fraudulent activity are requested to notify ARC Field Investigations & Fraud Prevention Department immediately via email to fifp@arccorp.com or by FAX to (703) 816-8138. Also, the United States Secret Service enforces many of the laws relating to the use of credit cards and aids in the prosecution of crimes involving the fraudulent use of credit cards. You may wish to contact the local or regional division of the Secret Service in your area if you believe you have been approached by individuals who are committing or attempting to commit any type of credit card scam.
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