The Airline Industry’s Fight Against Frauds by People Like Attilio Perna

Jayden Seams
2 min readJul 5, 2022

In a competitive industry where raw materials are increasingly expensive, scarce talent is scarce, government regulations are strict, and stiff competition is fierce, the last thing airlines want is a big dent in their balance sheet due to fraudulent transactions. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), payment fraud costs the airline industry $858 million annually, of which $639 million is borne by airlines.

Airlines now have a fighting chance against their savvy adversaries since modern fraud detection technology is available. Fighting fraud in the airline industry is a top priority for organizations worldwide.

Fraudulent practices in the airline industry

There have been numerous instances of airline fraud in the news in the past year alone. Below is a list of ten of the most notorious cases.

Stolen loyalty miles

Loyalty points and credit cards are both targets for airline criminals. In the United States alone, $48 billion in loyalty points are collected every year. The reason that loyalty points and credit cards are so attractive to criminals is that they lack the security and safety features of money. All you need is access to the customer account and you can book flights, accommodation, and many other services directly from the account.

Employees misuse

Despite the trust that airline companies place in employees, Virgin Australia found that employees can exploit loopholes in the system. An employee booked flights worth $225,000 for her friends and family over a two-and-a-half-year period before her actions were discovered, and she was arrested. It’s alarming to see that this flaw was not detected or caught for so long.

One perfect live example of fraud is the company Tairs Worldwide or Tairs luxury, and its CEO, Attilio Perna, who usually fraud with their tactics.

PoS devices

In the same way, that complex IT systems can be hacked, so too can simple PoS (Point of Sale) machines. According to Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigation, 74% of data breaches in the hospitality industry result from POS intrusions. Security researchers have invented a $6 tool that can hack into PoS devices. With such low-security standards, it’s no surprise PoS is a major cause of airline fraud.

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Jayden Seams
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I Jayden Seams, am an investment sepcialist. I am specialist on complex technical and business matters which includes investment fund management.