CellPoint Mobile CEO Kristian Gjerding Addresses Airline Industry about Growing Issue of Loyalty Program Fraud at 2014 Mega Event
NEW ORLEANS, LA (PRWEB) November 17, 2014 -- Kristian Gjerding, CEO of CellPoint Mobile, a global technology solutions firm that supports mobile payments and digital transactions for leading airlines, will discuss the growing phenomenon of loyalty program fraud and its impact on airlines’ frequent flyer programs and their members at the 2014 Mega Event in New Orleans, on November 18-19. Hosted by Airline Information, Mega Event is one of the largest industry events that brings together airline executives responsible for ancillary revenues and ecommerce, loyalty programs and co-brand cards.
Gjerding, an industry expert on mobile data integration, payments architecture solutions and fraud mitigation, will address the issue of loyalty program fraud and its costly impact on airline revenues, margins and the erosion of passenger loyalty and trust -- issues highlighted most recently by the November 2014 hack of members’ accounts in Hilton’s HHonors™ rewards program.
“Airline passengers increasingly rely on mobile devices as they travel, raising the bar for airlines to make all digital transactions seamless and safe, able to protect members’ mobile payments and hard-earned airline miles from hackers or fraud,” Gjerding said.
“Airlines, loyalty program and brands need to be incredibly clever, and they need to institute better security from the moment of sign-up to avoid hacks like these.”
Market data indicates that the total value of all industry loyalty programs -- travel, hotel, and retail – is as high as $360 billion USD. Mitigating fraudulent activity can help airlines keep members’ miles within the brand’s frequent-flyer program, retaining their value and giving members user-friendly, secure ways to redeem and use their hard-earned rewards. Unaddressed, however, loyalty program fraud can chip away at airline revenues, trim margins and erode trust among rewards program members and passengers whose accounts are compromised or hacked, he says.
Two common loyalty fraud schemes for airlines involve online brokers who buy members’ miles for cash and sell them to other buyers, often at amounts far below market value, and cybercriminals who hack into members’ accounts to steal miles or rewards, create fictitious accounts to accumulate the stolen miles, and then turn those miles into tickets or other merchandise, which they sell for cash at far below market value. Loyalty program fraud is on the rise, Gjerding says, because some of the fraud-related activities are not criminal acts, meaning the risk of being caught is minimal.
He urges airlines and loyalty program managers to protect members’ rewards accounts with the same kinds of security measures that exist for customers’ bank accounts. As frequent flyers’ miles are typically managed from digital accounts, Gjerding will discuss loyalty program fraud in a session called “Does the digital world – from apps to social media – really change the loyalty game?”
Gjerding and CellPoint Mobile’s solutions have recently been featured in articles about loyalty program fraud at AOL/Finance, Skift.com, Colloquy.com and Travel Daily News International. The company’s anti-fraud solutions, part of its comprehensive mobile payments infrastructure, use large sets of data to create passenger profiles, against which mobile activities can be monitored and red-flagged for suspicious activities. CPM’s solutions can identify and prevent 90% of hack-related fraud, according to Gjerding.
To learn more about CellPoint Mobile, please visit http://www.cellpointmobile.com. To schedule an interview with Kristian Gjerding, CEO of CellPoint Mobile, at the 2014 Mega Event, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell(at)thinkinkpr(dot)com or +1.305.776.8817. For more information about CPM’s loyalty fraud solution, please contact James Schildknecht at james(at)cellpointmobile(dot)com or +1.305.913.7115. For all other media requests, please contact Amanda Williams (US) at awilliams(at)thinkinkpr(dot)com or +1.305.749.5342 x238.
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About CellPoint Mobile: We Bring Mobility to Life
CellPoint Mobile provides the technology infrastructure, solutions and professional services that help clients around the world handle mobile payments and mobile transactions from a single, data-integrated platform. With offices in London, Miami and Copenhagen, CellPoint Mobile serves global and large, regional clients in transportation, retail and financial service sectors. Since 2007, its Commerce Orchestration Platform has helped companies across the world fulfil their digital strategy, increase sales and improve margins. Information, Visit http://www.cellpointmobile.com or email info(at)cellpointmobile(dot)com for more information.
Amanda Williams, ThinkInk PR, (305) 749-5342, [email protected]
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