The Hindu Business Line : Airlines' efforts to check online frauds

Advertisement

Mumbai, Feb. 28 Airlines are putting purchases of e-tickets using international credit cards through additional check. According to Mr Belson Coutinho, Head of E-commerce and Distribution for Jet Airways, private sector banks, airlines and the police have been meeting to develop processes to cut down online frauds.

"One of the processes being looked at is to send the card holder an SMS when a ticket is booked online," Mr Coutinho said.

ICICI, HSBC, Standard Chartered and HDFC were the banks present at the meetings, the first of which was held last month and the second about two weeks ago.

In addition, Mr Coutinho said there is a plan to form an Airline Association to deal holistically with the development of risk management strategies.

The importance of risk management strategies came to the forefront in late December last year when Kingfisher Airlines lodged a complaint claiming losses of Rs 13 crore between June 2005 and November 2006 on e-tickets booked using stolen credit card details.

In the aftermath of the scam, a number of domestic airlines, on the advice of Visa and MasterCard, ceased accepting international credit cards as the majority of the compromised cards had been issued internationally.

Significantly, Kingfisher has begun accepting international credit cards again.

"We have put some security gateways in place," Mr Hitesh Patel, Executive Vice-President, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, said.

"For example, when one makes a reservation online through a credit card, you will have to present the credit card at the airport to verify that you are the owner." Online reservations account for 35 to 40 per cent of Kingfisher's bookings.

Travellers with international credit cards will soon be able to book tickets through the Jet Airways Web site as well.

"We are migrating our gateway to one verified by Visa and Master secure code to ensure security," Mr Belson Coutinho said adding, "We should re-open bookings through international credit cards in a week or two."

Jet already has a policy that requires a passenger to present an attested copy of the credit card at the check-in counter, if the passenger and the credit card holder are not the same person.

Air Deccan has also disallowed international cards since November 2006.

"We are holding meetings and have discussed means and measures of fraud control through technology upgradation," said Ms Pratyasha Singh, Executive-Corporate Communications, Air Deccan.

"The usage of these cards for bookings will discontinue till we are able to find an effective technology to mitigate chances of fraudulent cases," she added.

Unlike other airlines, however, SpiceJet has not let the rise in the number of fraud cases deter them from allowing the use of international credit cards.

"We have received a few complaints about fraud occurring and have lost some money but not a large enough sum to cause us to take such a drastic step," said Mr Ajay Jasra, PRO, SpiceJet.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Pvt aircraft import to be costlier

Road construction sector welcomes the Budget

Airline sector awaits clarity on lease tax exemption

Paramount may benefit from ATF sops extension

Dredging up gains

Apollo LogiSolutions, Kale tie up

Airlines' efforts to check online frauds

More funds for roadways in N-E region welcomed