In recent decades, hotels did not care about fraud.
Point of sale terminals emerged only in 1979 when Visa introduced an electronic data capture terminal that was the first payment terminal. That same year, magnetic stripes were added to credit cards for the first time. Undoubtedly, this latest advance allowed the information of each credit card to be obtained electronically. This led to the further development of payment terminals.
Verifone Company started with the payment terminals. This happened in Hawaii in mid-1981. Two years later, they had already introduced the so-called ZON terminals on the market. Over time, these terminals were part of the standardization of the market and the posnet, as we know them today.
It is good to know that years ago, hotels did not allocate resources for fraud prevention. Today, hotels are one of the main targets of professional scammers who use technology to break into systems. For them, they use straightforward tools such as phishing and other more sophisticated ones.
These actions generate enormous damages in the hotels and their guests, who see their privacy and patrimony violated. As we can find in different publications that understand the subject, we present some of the fraud methods that can usually be found.
Many hotel reservations are made with a credit card. This leads to the cardholder providing details of an operation that is not carried out immediately. If not, what will be done in the future. It often happens that hotels do not have a terminal that allows validating a card, leading to fraudulent operations being carried out. Many hotel establishments have implemented EMV terminals, but others have not, leading to fraudulent charges.
At present, we find what is called appropriation of accounts. Many times, tourists and guests accumulate very high point balances on their membership cards, and these balances are often a target exploited by scammers. The essential thing in these cases is the protection of the clients’ points, and the collection has to be had in the same way as with conventional credit cards.
How do scammers act? They run automated scripts to test login credentials. Once logged into accounts, they quickly transfer these rewards points to other hotel cards or reservations, airfare, or vouchers.
In general, scammers know very well how loyalty programs work, which do not have security systems as rigorous as those of credit cards.
Applications are increasingly being used to make reservations and check-in at hotels. This leads to many applications being hacked by hotel criminals, who find a great opportunity in these cases. How do they do that? They use stolen credentials to fraudulently initiate client sessions, which creates a considerable risk for hotel institutions and passengers.
Another fraud mechanism is card testing. It consists of making false reservations, which allow obtaining authorization. It seems like a low-risk stock, but it is not. At the same time, this generated a high rate of absences and losses for hotel establishments.
Increasingly, scammers are getting more sophisticated. That is why it is essential to take all kinds of precautions so that fraud does not occur. For that, it is crucial to have data collection processes that are secure. This involves collecting and analyzing data such as device intelligence, site navigation metrics, and IP address. And that all this does not threaten the privacy of each client.
At CultBay, we work very seriously, and we understand that privacy in terms of hotel reservations is fundamental. Thanks to our alliance with eBay, we can say that we meet the highest security standards for our customers. And it is not a simple cliché. It is unavoidable and essential in a world where digital security has become necessary in our daily transactions.
In these years, we have achieved a perfect integration with eBay. This makes us the ideal complement to your combination of sales and hotel marketing in an innovative way.
From the accommodation vouchers, we can generate new offers in a market that is becoming more and more integrated every day, providing consumers with more and better benefits.
It is worth remembering that all data is synchronized in real-time between eBay and the hotel through the PMS and the Channel Manager connection. Through this system, the availability calendar is automatically and securely updated. In addition to avoiding fraud, eBay properties can be better sold on other channels.
CultBay GmbH is a technical service provider that, through innovative actions, enables hotels and accommodation providers to integrate 14 eBay marketplaces as a fully functional sales channel into their distribution mix. And there are already hundreds of clients who trust the platform and join this new reservation system with their hotels through vouchers and special offers. The alliance with eBay enables CultBay to work with the fixed price bidding and auction formats.
CultBay is part of Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH, which has over 15 years of experience providing technical services for the hospitality industry. CultBay and its innovative service are here to stay.
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