Expert Investigations

Fighting fraud in the aviation industry is a top priority for airlines around the world. In 2021, Fraudster reported that airlines lost 6.5 billion Euros to fraud, or 1.5% of global airline revenues. Most of this is payment fraud, but fraudsters use complex methods to manipulate from within. This is what is known as the Insider Threat.

What Is The Insider Threat?

An insider is any person who has or had access to or knowledge of businesses resources. That can include personnel, facilities, information, equipment, networks, and systems. Placing trust in such an individual who has decided to act dishonestly places your business under serious threat. And in many such cases, there are no measures in place to mitigate the damage.

The Insider Threat Inside The Aviation Industry

Airline companies trust their employees, but dishonest employees can always exploit loopholes in the system. A call center employee working for Virgin Australia booked flights worth $225,000 for her friends and family using virtual money held in 71 “travel back accounts” she fraudulently created. These accounts hold funds from cancelled flights until they are re-booked at a later date. The employee committed this fraud for a period of two-and-a-half years until she was finally arrested.

What Can You Do To Start Fighting Fraud In The Aviation Industry?

Like other companies, airlines suffer from slow manual processes and a lack of checks and balances. By the time the fraud is discovered, it’s too late. Therefore, you need to prepare and expect that employee dishonesty could happen in your business. There is a need for leaders to be realistic, responsible and mature and I advise a 3 tiered approach:

  1. Educate. Board and senior management must understand the risk.
  2. Conduct a risk assessment. Work from the broad and general to the specific.
  3. Training. Where required fill the knowledge gaps and give responsibility for implementation.

Are you concerned about the insider threat within your organisation? Get in touch with Expert Investigations today.