A report on bot activity has revealed that travel is the second-most-targeted industry for attacks, with bad bot traffic increasing from 37,4% of all web traffic in 2023, to 44,5% in 2024.
Data security company Imperva recently released its Bad Bot Report for 2024, which defines a bad bot as a software application performing automated tasks with malicious intent, including extracting data from websites to reuse it. Some of these bots undertake criminal activities, including fraud and theft.
Earlier this year, Booking.com Safety Boss Marnie Wilking said there had been a 500-900% increase in online accommodation scams in the last 18 months, as reported by Travel News. She said the scams had begun shortly after ChatGPT was released, leading to suspicions that AI had been involved.
A report from Tech Financials found that impersonation scams were increasing in South Africa as a result of advances in AI. In the travel industry, these take the form of phishing attacks, in which scammers, impersonating travel providers, convince victims to hand over card details by using very convincing booking links and advertisements.
Researchers at Imperva said within the travel industry, airlines were particularly targeted. In August alone, SAA was forced to release two warnings to customers regarding social media scams. The scams impersonated the airline and advertised discounted tickets on WhatsApp and Facebook to steal card details.
