Fraud Prevention in online Travel Agency

Yulisma Anugrah

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The aim of the research is to improve fraud detection and prevention of OTA (online travel agency) by identifying the specific period during the whole year when OTA faces huge exposure to fraud and analysing the elements of product defrauded such as travel origins, destinations, and point of sales. There are a few of hypothesis were formulated, (1) there is a positive correlation between fraud rate of destination city on hotel booking and departure airport on flight booking, (2) There is a positive correlation between fraud rate of destination city on hotel booking and arrival airport on flight booking, (3) The amount of fraudulent booking is higher during the summer compare to other seasons during the year. Author collected quantitative data from primary source with total sample of (N) 240.362 fraudulent bookings from 30 different point of sales around the world, contained several variables using data mining software. Key findings of the research found by analysing the attributes of the online booking as variables. Moreover, Author discovered arrival and departure airport, point of sales, destination cities, and products most defrauded. Author came to the conclusion that in order to improve fraud detection and reducing loss from fraudulent booking online travel agency is recommended to use risky flight path, destination cities, products and point of sales which author found as an indicator into its fraud detection system or probability of fraud model to filter the high risk booking from legitimate booking.

Keywords

fraud detection and prevention, online travel agency, data mining, online fraudulent booking, positive correlation on destination cities and airport

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 23. 4. 2015

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 1. 6. 2015
• Supervisor: Ing. Martina Sochůrková
• Reader: Ing. Martin Petříček

Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague

Bachelor programme / field:
Gastronomy, Hotel Management and Tourism / Hospitality Management (Study in English)