Over the recent few years, the travel industry has transformed its activities from physical airline booking to online flight operations. These online operations enabled customers to acquire traveling services remotely. For this reason, the online traveling industry generated a $600 billion share in 2023.
Despite that, this online transformation led the traveling sector to face severe cyber threats. These threats resulted in drastic identity theft and spoofing attacks, which were caused by the exploitation of customer’s confidential information. Therefore, the traveling sector must impose online identity verification checks to prevent such instances from exploiting the customers.
Impact of Online ID Verification on the Travel Industry
The traveling sector has been digitizing flight booking, check-ins, and onboarding procedures to enhance the customer’s traveling experiences. This process is carried out through the development of digital mobile applications that facilitate online traveling services. However, cybercriminals have started to exploit online applications by misusing customer’s identity credentials. This led to a surge in identity theft and account takeovers (ATOs). Thereby, online identity verification checks play a crucial role in the identification of such illicit entities.
Online identity verification checks are equipped with machine-learning algorithms, which enable automated authentication devices to identify document forgery and identity theft attempts. For this reason, digital identity verification solutions are crucial for the various reasons examined below:
- Online document verification lets only legitimate entities access the traveling services. These solutions protect customers from document forgery and identity theft attacks.
- Digital identification checks reduce the unnecessary time that is wasted during physical flight booking and onboarding procedures.
- Furthermore, identity verification procedures obligate all the KYC rules, which ensures that the customer’s confidential information stays protected during the authentication process.
Prevailing Scams in the Traveling Industry
The traveling sector can incorporate online identity verification checks to combat several criminal instances. Some of the most recurring traveling scams are discussed below:
| Credit Card Scams | Identity scammers steal the traveler’s credit card details and use them to purchase expensive travel packages. They later sell the tickets and use the proceeds for illegal operations. |
| Promotional Crimes | Unauthorized traveling agencies develop illicit websites through which they advertise promotional traveling packages. Through these promotional practices, scammers grab customers’ attention. Customers use their credit cards to purchase these packages, which results in severe financial exploitation. |
| Fake Travel Agents | Imposters partner up with different hotels, and they exploit the customer’s hotel check-in process. Furthermore, scammers make money laundering claims to the customers by placing fraudulent money in their rooms. |
| Account Takeovers | Imposters use illicit methods to breach the customer’s online account details. They use this information to gain access to the customer’s account and financial details, causing severe financial disparities. |
Effective Online Identity Verification Solutions for the Travel Industry
Online identity scams result in the exploitation of customer’s identity details. Therefore, the elimination of such instances requires extensive identity authentication solutions. Some of the most influential online identity verification scams are examined below:
Biometric Authentication
Biometric identity verification checks play a significant role in the prevention of travel scams. These checks streamline the blight booking, onboarding, and check-in process. Airports can install the latest facial recognition checks to automate the customer’s onboarding process. Furthermore, biometric recognition solutions can be incorporated into online applications. These checks protect the customer’s traveling and financial details from external access. Online biometric recognition solutions allow examiners to analyze the customer’s facial features, audio recordings, and fingerprints, which are compared with official documents stored in government directories.
Online Document Authentication
Imposter’s illicit activities can be mitigated through document authentication procedures. This requires the incorporation of OCR scanners. These scanners check the customer’s identity documents against document forgery attempts as they effectively identify all the alterations, errors, and fabrications. Therefore, these eliminate the illicit attempt of imposters.
Applications of Identity Verification Solutions in the Travel Industry
Digital ID verification solutions stimulate and automate the processing of different traveling procedures. These operations enhance the self-check-in procedures during onboarding procedures. Furthermore, online identification checks stimulate the customer’s onboarding procedures. This enhances their overall traveling experience and protects them from illicit external access.
Online identity authentication procedures allow only legitimate travelers to access the services. They also protect the online traveling application from imposter’s illegal operations. Therefore, to secure the travelling sector it is necessary to implement ID verifiers. After the deployment of these effective strategies, the traveling industry can stimulate its operations.
Final Thoughts
Online identity verification checks play a crucial role in the development of secure traveling operations. These services ensure protection from illicit activities. Online authentication operations ensure the traveler’s protection from several credit card and promotional scams. The authentication of customer’s identities provides a streamlined traveling experience for customers. Moreover, the imposter’s involvement in the traveling industry is minimized. Therefore, the traveling sector must increase the deployment of online identity verification checks for the security of customer’s identity and financial details.
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