SEATTLE — American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) will use Expedia Group’s Fraud Prevention as a Service (FPaaS) solution for travel bookings on its Amex GBT Egencia solution.

The FPaaS tool blocks fraudulent transactions before they happen, reducing unscrupulous activity and enabling more protection for their clients, says Expedia Group. Expedia Group sold Egencia to Amex GBT in 2021.

Key features included in FPaaS are ‘Booking Screening’, where Expedia Group reviews e-commerce transactions in real time with AI/ML fraud detection models to stop fraudulent transactions at the source. Another feature is ‘Account Takeover Protection’: Expedia Group monitors and reviews customer logins in real time using AI/ML models to secure the safety and integrity of customer accounts when potentially fraudulent activity is detected via suggested remedial actions.

There’s also a ’Chargeback Management’ feature, where Expedia Group’s in-house specialist fraud operations team takes end-to-end ownership of the dispute management and resolution process, dealing with all interactions with banks and merchants, all backed by a 100% chargeback guarantee, which reimburses partners for any true fraudulent transactions (ie. when the transaction was deemed acceptable during initial screening. It does not cover transactions that were either screened by FPaaS and not approved, and chargebacks for friendly fraud or service issues).

According to Experian’s 2022 Global Identity and Fraud Report, 70% of businesses say their concern about fraud increased compared to the year before, and 58% of consumers have been a victim of online fraud, know someone who has been a victim, or both.

The impacts are felt by the travel industry too. In total, fraud costs the travel industry over US$21 billion annually, including $6 billion in damages and $15 billion in overheads, according to other research.

In addition to direct and operational overheads incurred by dealing with fraudulent transactions, shady dealings can also result in the loss of personal data and create financial losses through unauthorized logins to customer accounts.

“We’ve combined over 20 years’ experience in the fraud prevention space with our unwavering commitment to continually evolve our technology in response to changing partner needs, resulting in targeted business solutions such as Fraud Prevention as a Service,” says Karen Bolda, Senior Vice President, Demand Solutions, Expedia Group. “By leveraging AI and machine learning, we’re happy to be offering Amex GBT a simple and effective way to help them manage fraudulent activity, ultimately, giving their customers better peace of mind when they’re booking trips.”

“We value our long-standing partnership with Expedia Group and their AI-driven solutions that address the ever-evolving needs of business travel and its many stakeholders,” said John Sturino, Senior Vice President of Travel Products and Engineering, Amex GBT. “This collaboration reinforces our commitment to our clients to deliver cutting-edge solutions that still meet the highest standards of security.”