subject: Identifying The Fake Online Travel Companies Selling Lowest Air Fare Tickets [print this page] There have been recent instances of fraud being committed by the so-called online travel agencies which do not have any real existence and are neither associated with travel in any way. These exist only to take money from the customers against the fake bookings of flight tickets. National Fraud Authority of UK has recently identified more than 100 instances of fake reservations against which the payments were made by the customers. These instances highlight that the fact that the people looking for lowest air fare would not hesitate to use any online resource which offers them low cost flight tickets. Some would even say that identifying the fraud websites is not easy. However, with a little caution, it is very much possible to find whether any online entity is real or not. Some of the things that one shall look out for are:
1.Associations with which the agency is registered: What are the associations with which the agency is associated? Are these associations reputed and well known? These are some of the questions that you must ask yourself and find the answers to these.
2.Cross-check with the association: If any website lists that it is a member of some associations, then you can also verify this claim by inquiring about the membership of the company with that association.
3.Mode of payment insisted upon: The fake agencies often find it easy to take the payments in cash rather than opting via credit cards or debit cards since the use of latter can put them in trouble. So, if any agency does not want to or does not have the option of making online payments using credit or debit cards, then working with it could be risky.
4.Secure Payment symbol: Once you visit the website of the genuine companies and try to make online payment, you can see a padlock symbol in your browser which indicates that the payment to that company is genuine. So, if you see this missing, then that payment shall not be made since it is not secure.
5.Use online independent identity-verification service providers: It is quite common for people to search for the company on resources such as Google Places or Google Maps but it is not suggested to use these for verification purposes since the information on these is generated by the users themselves. So, it is better to use the services of independent resources such as business directories which verify the physical existence of entity.
So, falling for the lowest air fare without verifying the authenticity of the company, using the above said methods, could make you lose money to fake companies.
by: Shawn Parker
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