Almost €12 Million lost due to booking fraud within the last 12 months in Ireland.

iReach Insights Press Release

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21st May 2019

Almost €12 Million lost due to booking fraud within the last 12 months in Ireland. Over 180.000 adults in Ireland have at least been once a victim of holiday booking fraud. In the past 12 months this has affected over 25.000 bookings with an average loss per booking of €451. Top three bookings that turned out to be a fraud are; 1. Train Tickets (35%), 2. Hotel Bookings (32%), 3. Apartment Bookings (23%).  59% arranged a legitimate replacement booking and 7% claimed under holiday insurance. As we face into the Summer Holiday period, iReach Insights conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,001 adults in Ireland on their experiences with booking fraud.   This research revealed, that over 180.000 adults in Ireland have at least been once a victim of holiday booking fraud. Over 25,000 bookings have been affected in the last 12 months. With an average loss of €451 per booking, generating personal losses of almost €12 Million within the last 12 months. Due to the rapid development of new technologies, such as the widespread internet and social media platforms, and the associated new opportunities for fraudsters, it is likely that these numbers will continue to rise in the future. This can be deduced from the fact that most of the bookings were made on an online website (59%), smartphone (36%) or via e-mail (20%); and were mainly paid by credit card (64%), only 20% indicated that they ever paid cash. Almost half (47%) of those that ever experienced a booking fraud stated that they have been deceived at least two times or more. Top five bookings that turned out to be a fraud were train tickets (35%), hotel bookings (32%), apartment booking (23%), bus tickets (16%) and airline tickets (15%). The good news is that 59% obtained a legitimate replacement booking. 34% indicated that they did not claim under holiday insurance so lost depositions and spend. The remaining 7% claimed and received refunds under holiday insurance.   About iReach Insights iReach Insights provides a range of research and market intelligence services in Ireland and Europe. iReach has built a Consumer Decisions Research Panel of 40,000 members in Ireland, delivering robust research insights. The survey questions were included in the Nationally Representative iReach Consumer Decisions Omnibus run between the 9th and the 16th May and has a 3% Confidence Interval and 95% Confidence Level. Questions asked of participants: Have you ever been a victim of holiday booking fraud? What kind of booking turned out to be a fraud? How was the booking made? How was the booking paid for? How many times have you been a victim? When did that happen? How much have you approximately lost due to this fraud (the last time)? Did you obtain legitimate replacement booking? Did you claim under Holiday Insurance? iReach Insights Limited – Temple Hall, Temple Road, Blackrock, CO. Dublin, IRELAND. iReach Managing Director: Oisin Byrne T: 01-214 3740 or email: PR@ireachhq.com