Are we witnessing an end to the holiday sickness compensation claims' frauds in Mallorca? The arrests this week might suggest so, but these are arrests in respect of the on-the-ground scamming. It is only one ploy used by the claims farming companies in the UK who are engaged in a conspiracy to get others (holidaymakers) to commit fraud. Hence why Abta earlier this week sounded a warning about a further rise in the number of claims coinciding with the end of the peak holiday season. The claims farmers are busy contacting potential clients who might be attracted to a spot of fraud to pay off the credit card and to make a profit on the holiday. Phoning, social media are just two means. They are also brazenly advertising. There is a sickness in the UK justice system that can facilitate this; it is just as sick as the activities of claims farmers and as the alleged sicknesses the clients have (or rather don't have).
Scams such as this have a certain power to make communities come together in rejecting them. In Alcudia there used to be the scratch card time-sharing scammers. Local people, be they business people or residents, used to confront some of the "tiqueteros". Take your rotten trade somewhere else. Eventually, after all the denunicas, the fines got so great that the operation suddenly shut down and disappeared. It's similar with the false claims. When two women were identified locally in Alcudia as being ones making approaches to holidaymakers, they were confronted. Not so long after they were arrested. It isn't just the hoteliers who are outraged, so are local people. Scammers should never underestimate the power of such outrage.
Those arrests earlier this summer were bound to have meant that the net was closing in. And so it has. But what business there was to be had. Alcudia's Club Mac, the all-inclusive complex commonly cited in respect of the fraudulent claims, has more than 2,000 places. Figure it out for yourselves. Where the "tiqueteros" were concerned, even one per cent success rate of claims being made equated to something like a thousand quid in commissions. Club Mac was being taken for over four million euros last year. This related to just under 800 guests. A claims rate of, say, 2.5% over a sixteen-week period might not have been massive, but then it didn't need to be. It was like shelling peas.
The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation has congratulated the Guardia Civil for its arrests. The federation says that it will be part of legal procedures taken. It is "expectant" about the outcome of the Guardia's operation. So will be others. Meanwhile, one finds it remarkable that approaches could still be made by those claims farmers using social media and other means. The UK press has done an excellent job in exposing what has been going on, especially The Mail. For once I am more than happy to praise the paper.
Anyone in the UK who fancies dabbling in a spot of fraud should take note, as they should also take note of the communications from Tui and Thomas Cook warning firms and clients that they risk criminal proceedings. One firm has been suspended. Others will surely follow. The net is tightening, and one hopes that all life will be squeezed out of the scam. There are people in Alcudia who are cheering.
Showing posts with label False claims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label False claims. Show all posts
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Tui Success Against Fraudulent Sickness Claims
Early last week, it was reported that Cehat, the Spanish hoteliers confederation, had sent a stern letter to UK tour operators regarding false holiday compensation claims. Tui, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Monarch were left in no doubt that Spain's hoteliers were sick and tired both of the claims and of the system by which tour operators deduct claims' amounts from hotelier invoices. The confederation has also suspected that tour operators simply don't do enough. It was therefore warning that "commercial relations" could be damaged if there wasn't firmer action.
The hoteliers, included among them the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, have to an extent been playing to the gallery for Spanish public consumption. While it is obvious that UK legislation needs to be reformed (and will be eventually), tour operators aren't to blame for a system which makes it so easy for claims to be made. Moreover, although there is contractual small print which allows tour operators to make deductions from invoices, it hasn't been the case that tour operators have just been rolling over and accepting the situation with the claims. Jet2's initiative with private detectives is a case in point.
Nevertheless, the hoteliers are fully justified in being angry, so more is now emerging of how tour operators are reacting. Tui has admitted that the volume of claims has gone up by 1400% over the past two years. Nick Longman, Tui UK and Ireland's managing director, has told Travel Weekly that the claims are "a massive problem for us; a huge problem for the industry". These are not the words of a senior executive lying down and accepting the situation.
Blacklisting customers is nothing new. Tour operators have a long history of doing this, especially if customers have tried it on in making specious compensation claims. Hoteliers have also had blacklists for the very same reason. The blacklisting is now being done in a more thorough fashion, certainly by Tui. In addition, the company is sending letters to those who set out on a claims process and is warning that they will be liable if claims are dismissed. It won't be the claims farming companies which put them up to making the claims who are charged with fraud; it will be their clients.
Longman says that some 50% of the letters have resulted in claims being dropped. Tui is now sending out more letters. Meanwhile, it is understood that police in the UK are becoming active in investigating potential fraud and are working with tour operators. So, far from being as inactive as the hoteliers have been alleging, it is the tour operators who have taken matters into their own hands and appear to be having some success.
The national secretary of state for tourism, Matilde Asián, has been telling hoteliers to be more proactive in denouncing the presence of claims farmers. If they are aware of vehicles or individuals outside their establishments, they are being encouraged to report them to the prosecution service. She says that more is being done to curb their activities but "more should be done". The fraudulent claims, she adds, are "putting Spain's image at risk".
It may or may not have been hotelier proactivity that helped to get the Guardia Civil involved, but they are. Two Britons have been arrested in Alcudia, accused of inciting holidaymakers to lodge false claims. Not so long ago, there were two British women hanging around outside a chemist's shop (as well as Bellevue and Club Mac) approaching holidaymakers.
This is the way to go. Or one way. Conspiracy to incite others to commit a crime. Well done, the Guardia.
The hoteliers, included among them the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, have to an extent been playing to the gallery for Spanish public consumption. While it is obvious that UK legislation needs to be reformed (and will be eventually), tour operators aren't to blame for a system which makes it so easy for claims to be made. Moreover, although there is contractual small print which allows tour operators to make deductions from invoices, it hasn't been the case that tour operators have just been rolling over and accepting the situation with the claims. Jet2's initiative with private detectives is a case in point.
Nevertheless, the hoteliers are fully justified in being angry, so more is now emerging of how tour operators are reacting. Tui has admitted that the volume of claims has gone up by 1400% over the past two years. Nick Longman, Tui UK and Ireland's managing director, has told Travel Weekly that the claims are "a massive problem for us; a huge problem for the industry". These are not the words of a senior executive lying down and accepting the situation.
Blacklisting customers is nothing new. Tour operators have a long history of doing this, especially if customers have tried it on in making specious compensation claims. Hoteliers have also had blacklists for the very same reason. The blacklisting is now being done in a more thorough fashion, certainly by Tui. In addition, the company is sending letters to those who set out on a claims process and is warning that they will be liable if claims are dismissed. It won't be the claims farming companies which put them up to making the claims who are charged with fraud; it will be their clients.
Longman says that some 50% of the letters have resulted in claims being dropped. Tui is now sending out more letters. Meanwhile, it is understood that police in the UK are becoming active in investigating potential fraud and are working with tour operators. So, far from being as inactive as the hoteliers have been alleging, it is the tour operators who have taken matters into their own hands and appear to be having some success.
The national secretary of state for tourism, Matilde Asián, has been telling hoteliers to be more proactive in denouncing the presence of claims farmers. If they are aware of vehicles or individuals outside their establishments, they are being encouraged to report them to the prosecution service. She says that more is being done to curb their activities but "more should be done". The fraudulent claims, she adds, are "putting Spain's image at risk".
It may or may not have been hotelier proactivity that helped to get the Guardia Civil involved, but they are. Two Britons have been arrested in Alcudia, accused of inciting holidaymakers to lodge false claims. Not so long ago, there were two British women hanging around outside a chemist's shop (as well as Bellevue and Club Mac) approaching holidaymakers.
This is the way to go. Or one way. Conspiracy to incite others to commit a crime. Well done, the Guardia.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
The False Claims For All-Inclusive
A ban by Mallorca's hoteliers on offering all-inclusive to UK holidaymakers. No sooner had this headline appeared than the cheers were ringing out. Salvation was at hand for bars and restaurants that have struggled under the yoke of all-inclusivity for years: too many years to mention. Such a ban would be the death knell for the all-inclusive. Its obituary was already being written. If only.
Curious things can happen which change business strategies and business marketing. An avalanche of false compensation claims for diarrhoea and gastric complaints falls into the curious category. No one could have anticipated that these claims might signal the end of the reviled all-inclusive: reviled, that is, by a section of the holidaymaking public but not by another but most certainly by the non-hotel complementary sector.
The point is that all-inclusive is not in a process of dismantlement. It would just be the British tourist who is barred from obtaining a wristband and from enjoying the dubious pleasures of endless queuing for dubious quality refreshment. And such a characterisation is itself false in terms of the whole offer of all-inclusive. Some of it is rubbish, some of it is not. It very much depends on the type of establishment, the type of establishment classification, the type of clientele, and the type of socioeconomic classification of that clientele (its money, therefore).
The delights of all-inclusive would instead be diverted to tourists from other nations. French, Swiss, Dutch will suddenly be able to indulge themselves in all-inclusive heaven. As though they haven't been able to already. The threat by the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation to cease offering all-inclusive to the UK market may not be an idle one, but its practicality is another issue. Demand may be a further one. Tour operator strategies for these alternative markets would be yet another. A swift U-turn in their product marketing will be required for 2018 if the British are to be denied their all-inclusive rights.
The UK market, in all its guises, is the second largest for Balearic tourism. It dwarfs the supply of touristic human resources from other nations. The hoteliers' threat would be difficult to follow through. It might not come about in any event if the UK justice system moves with greater alacrity than it has thus far. The threat had a sense of the good headline rather than anything definitive.
The false claims are reprehensible as well as being illegal under both UK and Spanish law. Their number, though, should make one wonder about the coherence of UK justice. Is there no database of claims? The fact that the same claim in very much the same form, directed at very much the same hotels, being made by very much the same intermediaries must surely have alerted someone to the existence of an organised fraud. Seemingly not.
This has become an issue of such significance that it has risen to the state level. The hoteliers have themselves insisted that it is a matter of state. But while far from condoning the claims, have the hoteliers not engaged in some dissembling? Reports for Mallorca as to the scale, cost and growth of claims bear a remarkable resemblance to those for Spain as a whole: the same figures in other words. Still, it's all good stuff for news management on the local hoteliers' behalf.
Is there, one might ask, another agenda: an opportunity being spied? Think of Magalluf and how there has been some jumping for joy at the fact that the resort is now less dependent on the British. The transformational process of Meliaisation has opened the gates to the resort to Swiss, Russians and others. The sub-text, barely disguised, is that these other markets will bring greater riches. The thinking, a highly generalised one, is that the British are low-rent, in addition to being drunk and almost unrecognisable because of tattooed adornment.
The false claims, targeted principally at the economy-class giant all-inclusives, just serve to reinforce this negative image of the British. They can therefore provide a means to an end, one of altering the tourism nationality marketing mix. Perhaps a post-Brexit apocalypse is also entering the thinking, but why should there be such a thing? Tourism life will continue, untrammelled by notions of what may or may not constitute freedom of movement in the future.
Brexit may, though, influence hotelier thinking regarding all-inclusive. Before the bombshell and supported by general European economic recovery, the hotels were moving away from all-inclusive. There are definitely examples of ones which have now either abandoned it, have reduced it or are contemplating doing so. Brexit, or rather foreign exchange, may just demand a rethink, hotelier threat or not; negative image of the British or not. The truth for the hoteliers is that they cannot do without the British, and they know it.
Curious things can happen which change business strategies and business marketing. An avalanche of false compensation claims for diarrhoea and gastric complaints falls into the curious category. No one could have anticipated that these claims might signal the end of the reviled all-inclusive: reviled, that is, by a section of the holidaymaking public but not by another but most certainly by the non-hotel complementary sector.
The point is that all-inclusive is not in a process of dismantlement. It would just be the British tourist who is barred from obtaining a wristband and from enjoying the dubious pleasures of endless queuing for dubious quality refreshment. And such a characterisation is itself false in terms of the whole offer of all-inclusive. Some of it is rubbish, some of it is not. It very much depends on the type of establishment, the type of establishment classification, the type of clientele, and the type of socioeconomic classification of that clientele (its money, therefore).
The delights of all-inclusive would instead be diverted to tourists from other nations. French, Swiss, Dutch will suddenly be able to indulge themselves in all-inclusive heaven. As though they haven't been able to already. The threat by the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation to cease offering all-inclusive to the UK market may not be an idle one, but its practicality is another issue. Demand may be a further one. Tour operator strategies for these alternative markets would be yet another. A swift U-turn in their product marketing will be required for 2018 if the British are to be denied their all-inclusive rights.
The UK market, in all its guises, is the second largest for Balearic tourism. It dwarfs the supply of touristic human resources from other nations. The hoteliers' threat would be difficult to follow through. It might not come about in any event if the UK justice system moves with greater alacrity than it has thus far. The threat had a sense of the good headline rather than anything definitive.
The false claims are reprehensible as well as being illegal under both UK and Spanish law. Their number, though, should make one wonder about the coherence of UK justice. Is there no database of claims? The fact that the same claim in very much the same form, directed at very much the same hotels, being made by very much the same intermediaries must surely have alerted someone to the existence of an organised fraud. Seemingly not.
This has become an issue of such significance that it has risen to the state level. The hoteliers have themselves insisted that it is a matter of state. But while far from condoning the claims, have the hoteliers not engaged in some dissembling? Reports for Mallorca as to the scale, cost and growth of claims bear a remarkable resemblance to those for Spain as a whole: the same figures in other words. Still, it's all good stuff for news management on the local hoteliers' behalf.
Is there, one might ask, another agenda: an opportunity being spied? Think of Magalluf and how there has been some jumping for joy at the fact that the resort is now less dependent on the British. The transformational process of Meliaisation has opened the gates to the resort to Swiss, Russians and others. The sub-text, barely disguised, is that these other markets will bring greater riches. The thinking, a highly generalised one, is that the British are low-rent, in addition to being drunk and almost unrecognisable because of tattooed adornment.
The false claims, targeted principally at the economy-class giant all-inclusives, just serve to reinforce this negative image of the British. They can therefore provide a means to an end, one of altering the tourism nationality marketing mix. Perhaps a post-Brexit apocalypse is also entering the thinking, but why should there be such a thing? Tourism life will continue, untrammelled by notions of what may or may not constitute freedom of movement in the future.
Brexit may, though, influence hotelier thinking regarding all-inclusive. Before the bombshell and supported by general European economic recovery, the hotels were moving away from all-inclusive. There are definitely examples of ones which have now either abandoned it, have reduced it or are contemplating doing so. Brexit, or rather foreign exchange, may just demand a rethink, hotelier threat or not; negative image of the British or not. The truth for the hoteliers is that they cannot do without the British, and they know it.
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