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GB and ABTA announce partnership to reduce fraud in the travel sector

ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) has joined forces with GB to help combat holiday fraud scams and money laundering rackets. The association is using URU to vet owners and directors of travel businesses before handing them licences.

Over the coming year, ABTA will develop the partnership with GB to provide an ongoing service to its membership – including over 6,000 travel agencies and 850 tour operators - to combat the rising problem of card-not-present fraud which cost the industry £24.1m last year (APACS).

Travel agencies and tour operators discussed the issues with the GB team at ABTA’s ‘Stamp Out Fraud’ event on 6 June, which took place in association with the Metropolitan Police, ATOL, Travel Trust Association and Teletext and included speakers from GB, KPMG, Davenport Lyons and Baker Tilly. To request a copy of the presentation, click here.

David Marshall, Head of Policy and Communications at ABTA said: “The rise in holiday scams and money laundering is of great concern to us – we will be using the URU service to help stop the people behind these scams from damaging the reputation of the travel industry as a whole. We will also be investigating how our members could benefit from electronic ID verification in the fight against identity related fraud, which is not only costing millions in lost profits every year but is also ruining hard won reputations and knocking consumer confidence in the industry.”