Accertify: Middle East And Africa Record Highest Air Travel Fraud Rates

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- The fraud pressure continues to vary significantly by market, with the most notable shift occurring across the Middle East and Africa, according to Accertify's second quarter (Q2) Global Air Travel Fraud Report.

The region's average prevented fraud rate more than doubled quarter over quarter, from 0.95 per cent to 2.03 per cent, the highest of any region analysed, against a global average of 0.29 per cent, while bookings departing from Cairo, Accra, Tunis, and Casablanca posted the four highest fraud rates worldwide.

Accertify in a statement said the findings also revealed that departure cities across the United States and Australia continued to register some of the world's lowest booking-stage fraud rates, reflecting the more mature fraud-prevention practices commonly found in those markets.

The report also found that Cairo recorded the highest fraud rate in the world this quarter. The fraud rate on bookings departing from Cairo rose from 1.43 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) to 6.57 per cent in Q2, moving it from 15th to the highest globally in a single quarter.

Meanwhile, East Asia posted the largest proportional improvement of any region. Its average prevented fraud rate nearly halved year over year, falling 43 per cent from 0.20 per cent to 0.11 per cent, a steeper percentage decline than any other region.

For the first time, the report tracks how individual departure cities move within the global rankings from one quarter to the next, providing airlines with additional insight into where fraud pressure is increasing or easing over time.

The quarterly report examines how fraud pressure varies across global airline markets based on departure city at the time of booking, analysing 132.9 million airline booking transactions processed between April and June 2026.

The report evaluates prevented fraud rates across 537 departure cities that each processed at least 10,000 transactions during the quarter, providing airlines with a data-driven view of where Accertify's Predictive Yes platform intervened most frequently at booking.

By examining prevented fraud at the point of booking, airlines can better benchmark their own performance, identify emerging areas of elevated risk, and adapt fraud prevention strategies as booking patterns evolve.

-- BERNAMA