ARC and Client “Impersonators” Again Asking for Agency Information
In each case, the caller is friendly, persuasive, and requests information from the travel agency by telephone:
One woman identified herself as “Shirley” from ARC.
“Shirley” just wanted to update records and asked the agent how the agent ordered ticket stock and requested confirmation of the ticket numbers the agent received in the last order.
One man posed as a “satisfied customer” of the travel agency.
The “satisfied customer” requested the travel agent’s ARC/IATA number so that the customer could write to the airline about what a wonderful job the travel agent did for him.
The ARC-accredited agencies did not fall for the schemes because they knew:
ARC would not call for that information.
ARC already had the stock control numbers for all tickets shipped to the agency.
The caller was NOT one of their customers.
The airline already had the agent’s ARC/IATA code number.
If you have received a similar call, or want to confirm the identity of an ARC employee or just want to authenticate a written ARC request, please contact ARC Field Investigations & Fraud Prevention by phone at 703-816-8137 or by email to fifp@arccorp.com.
Please retain a copy this Alert as well as other ARC Fraud Alerts found at www.arccorp.com. Keep ARC Fraud Alerts handy; post them on your message boards, bulletin boards, etc.; and share them with all your employees, outside sales staff, sub agents & affiliates.
