IATA Offers Integrated Fraud-Prevention Solution

With payment fraud costing the travel industry an estimated $858 million annually, IATA offers IATA Argus, a fraud-prevention system for travel agencies and airlines powered by Ypsilon.Net.

The system was designed specifically for the unique needs of the travel industry, which differ greatly from those of other retail sectors.

Ypsilon connects Argus and payment services with all major GDSs and airline reservation systems.

Rules can be precisely defined based on more than 250 metrics, as well as internal and external modules such as black and white lists and customer solvency information.

IATA said that by accessing information available in global distribution systems, Argus is able to detect suspect transactions from as early as the booking request stage and flag them or even cancel them as appropriate.

It can notify the agent or airline of a suspicious booking and automatically take action to void, suspend, or cancel a ticket.

IATA Argus also can integrate systems such as IATA Perseuss, a secure platform for sharing information about fraudulent activity, and Ethoca, a collaboration network for card issuers and merchants.

It can use the information it gleans from those systems to improve fraud scoring.

Scoring results are presented graphically in the back-office module and can be linked on request to GDS or CRS commands, such as individual queuing, insertion of remarks or OSI, cancellation of booking, modification of segment status, or removal of seating assignment for short-term departure.