European airline fraud losses have reached USD 77.7 million over the past year despite overall fraud rates declining by 2.9%, according to Visa's latest report.
Rising losses stem from increasingly sophisticated cross-border operations, with 99% of regional fraud now occurring through ecommerce channels. International sales account for approximately 65% of total losses.
Fraudsters exploit international transactions through schemes, including triangulation, where criminals establish fake travel sites offering discounted deals, and synthetic identity fraud to open accounts for abusing BNPL services.
Cross-border transactions concentrate fraud exposure
The Americas account for 64% of the total fraud share, compared to 8% in Asia and 4% in Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Inter-regional transactions comprise 75% of cross-border fraud, with a fraud rate of 15.1 basis points. 47% of Europe's airline sales are cross-border, while 75% of cross-border fraud involves an issuer outside Europe.
Talking about the findings, Cora Constantin, Europe Tech and Risk Advisory at Visa, stated that every booking and journey depends on payments being secure and risks being managed proactively. Advanced analytics, real-time fraud detection, and AI-driven risk intelligence can help airlines stay ahead of fraudsters and protect revenues and customer experiences. Travel ultimately involves connection, bridging distances, cultures, and opportunities. Together, stakeholders can ensure connections remain secure, resilient, and future-ready.
Fraud prevention strategies balance security and experience
The whitepaper notes that airlines must rethink fraud prevention with strategies protecting revenue without disrupting customer experience at intra-regional and inter-regional levels. Airlines must deploy security balancing speed and protection without adding unnecessary friction for passengers.
Technologies helping airlines reduce fraud exposure include account takeover protection, tokenisation, and real-time risk scoring. These controls operate without affecting customer experience during booking processes.
Triangulation fraud involves fraudsters positioning themselves as intermediaries, creating fraudulent travel booking sites offering below-market prices. Criminals use stolen payment credentials to purchase legitimate tickets, which they resell to unsuspecting customers at discounted rates.
Synthetic identity fraud combines real and fabricated identity elements to create accounts, bypassing traditional verification processes. Fraudsters use these identities to exploit credit facilities, including BNPL products, before abandoning accounts.
Network tokenization replaces payment credentials with tokens for recurring or card-on-file transactions, reducing fraud risks from data breaches by limiting the value of compromised information.
Fraud rates measured in basis points represent the percentage of transaction value lost to fraud, with 15.1 basis points equating to 0.151% of transaction value.
