FRAUDSTERS are becoming bolder
in their approach to scam TMCs by
impersonating clients via telephone. A
Pietermaritzburg-based agency recently
fell victim to a scam that began with
a client referral and ended with the
agency losing R250 000.
This is not the first agency to be
conned out of a large sum of money
after following up on a referral. In
2014, a Johannesburg agency lost
almost R2m in four days and in
October last year, the same agency
almost fell for a similar stunt.
The agent from the most recently
scammed agency, has asked to
remain anonymous and says one of
the agency’s existing corporate clients
contacted her saying he had referred
the corporate client’s UK-based office
to the agency so that they could issue
flight tickets. “The client provided us
with the contact’s name – ‘Mr Richard
Lawton’. Due to our relationship we
trusted the referral,” the agent says.
Later that afternoon, Mr Lawton
emailed the details of the 11 travellers
and said it was a highly urgent request.
The agent then issued the tickets for
flights from Ghana that same day – six
on Kenya Airways and five on Emirates.
The next day, Mr Lawton
requested tickets for more
passengers. “This didn’t
sit right with us so we
immediately requested the
credit card details.”
Mr Lawton then sent through
copies of three credit cards –
two from Westpac (Australia)
and one from Chase Bank
(US). The agent became
suspicious, as she’d never
received such clear copies
of credit cards from a client
before. “I contacted the
relevant banks with a code 10
request, but they both said
they could not make contact
with the cardholder. I then
realised we’d been defrauded
of R250 000.”
When the agency contacted
the existing client who made
the referral, the client denied
doing any such thing, which
led to more unanswered
questions. The agency has
since contacted the airlines
and requested a refund on the
unused portion.
Christo Snyman, national
director of forensic services
of Mazars, says agents
are becoming increasingly
vulnerable to fraud that
exploits the trust they
have with clients. He says
scammers need only download
spyware that allows them to
hack into agents’ emails and
see correspondence between
them and clients.
To avoid getting scammed,
Christo says agents must be
wary of emails that come from
web-based email services like
Yahoo and Gmail. He also
suggests requesting a landline
and cellphone number from
every client – the more contact
details the better. Foreign
credit cards should also be
verified before booking.
