McAfee warns of new digital scams

Regular travellers are all too aware of various online scams but need to exercise particular caution when booking independently online, security experts at McAfee have warned. 

"It's important to strike a balance between the excitement of planning and the need for vigilance,” Vonny Gamot, a regional head at McAfee said:

“Cyber criminals are like digital pickpockets, using the lure of holiday seasons to trick unsuspecting [travellers] with too-good-to-be-true deals. 

"With the rise of AI, these scams have become more realistic and more common.

“We’re urging all holidaymakers to stay vigilant online and think twice before clicking on a link or sharing credit card details. By doing this, you’ll be protecting your privacy and identity, as well as your finances.”

Travel news hub Travel Mole reports that Gamot recommends customers double check they are on an official booking site by making sure the web address is a prefix ‘https’ and not just ‘http’. It often appears as a little padlock icon in the address bar of the browser.

“Also be wary of any text or email offering too-good-to-be-true holiday deals or ‘fast-track’ passport renewals.

“If ever in doubt over the legitimacy of an email or link, don’t engage with it and go direct to the source. 

"While dreaming about your next adventure, don’t let cyber criminals turn it into a nightmare.”

Image: Saruvut Vanset, Scop.io

Take your passport swimming with you in Bali

 

If you are heading for Bali there is one rule - albeit a very stupid one - that you should bear in mind.

It has always been the case that foreign nationals in Indonesia must carry their identification and documents with them at all times, but it is a rule that has rarely been enforced.

Until now. The Bali Sun reported recently that immigration officers are carrying out spot checks on an increasingly regular basis throughout the island.

It said this is part of a province-wide initiative aimed at preventing foreigners from overstaying their visas and violating their visa conditions.

A team of immigration officers, wearing security vests and body cams, is conducting spot checks on tourists, asking to review their passports and questioning them. 

And you must carry your actual passport with you; not a copy. That means you must carry your passport to the beach, or the coffee shop. 

What if you want to pop in the water for a dip? 

Should you leave your passport on the beach with your towel, from where it could easily be stolen?

Or should you put it in a waterproof container and take it with you into the waves? 

Probably not, because if a passport is damaged it cannot be used to travel. And you could be stranded until you get a new one. 

It's clearly one of those occasions where the law is an ass.      

Trump bans people from 12 countries from the US

We’ve all read about Australians with legitimate visas being refused entry to the United States by “overzealous” US Customs and Border Protection staff. 

Now President Donald Trump has upped the ante by banning anyone from 12 countries from entering the US at all. 

The Trump administration on Wednesday banned people from 12 countries from entering the United States, a dramatic escalation in Trump’s crackdown on immigration, The New York Times reports. 

The ban, which goes into effect on Monday, primarily affects travellers from Africa nations and the Middle East. The list includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

How dare they not be American? 

Trump has also partially banned travellers from several other countries, including Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The decision to ban travel from those countries comes after Trump blocked asylum seekers at the southern border of the US and barred international students from Harvard University.

The newspaper says Trump’s order frames the reasoning for restricting travel as necessary because of national security threats, but critics say that the order discriminates against broad swaths of people based on their ethnicity alone. 

In his first term as president Trump barred travel from several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don’t want them,” Trump said in a video message posted on social media.

Trump’s order comes just a few days after an Egyptian man in Colorado attacked a group honouring hostages being held in Gaza. Trump administration officials warned that they would crack down on migration in the wake of the attack.

You can just imagine the outrage if countries imposed complete bans on US passport holders. 

Thailand launches new digital travel document

Thailand will introduce a new online arrival form called the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) starting on May 1.

The system will go live on April 28 for travel commencing from May 1 onwards..

The TDAC replaces the previous paper arrival cards (TM6 form) that had to be filled out on the plane before entering Thailand, news hub Travel Mole reports.

The new digital arrival card, which can be filled out before the day of travel, is part of the Thailand’s ‘Smart Tourism’ initiative.

Worapa Ankhasirisap, director of Tourism Authority of Thailand in London, said: “This is a huge step forward in enhancing the travel experience for international visitors.

"This streamlined, paperless system makes the arrival process more efficient.

“By embracing digital innovation, we are not only improving border procedures but also gathering valuable insights to better understand travel trends.”

From May 1, all international travellers must apply online for the TDAC before entering Thailand.

The TDAC is mandatory and free to complete.

There is an exception for non-Thai passport holders who are transiting in Thailand without going through immigration control.

Once travellers complete details online, they will receive a QR code.

Along with their passport, this QR code must be shown - on a device or printed out - to an immigration officer on arrival to Thailand.

NB: A TDAC is not a visa.

Image: Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok 

Technology could mean a different airport experience

The agony of airports is about to end. Maybe. 

Within a few years you’ll apparently be able to move through departures without even taking your phone or your passport out of your pocket. 

It’s part of an international plan to digitise air travel, replacing boarding passes and check-in desks with facial recognition technology.

Boarding passes and the need to check-in for flights will be scrapped as part of plans to overhaul the aviation industry in the biggest shake-up in 50 years.

If everything goes according to plan, passengers will be able to upload their passports to their phone and pass through airports using only their face for verification within “two to three years”.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the UN body responsible for policy, is tearing up existing rules for airports and airlines and creating a new “digital travel credential”, allowing passport information stored on devices to be used for travel, The Times reported this weekend. 

Checking in for flights online or at the airport will become obsolete. Instead passengers will be able to download a “journey pass” to their phone when they book a flight. It will be automatically updated if any changes are made to the booking. Yep, good luck with that. 

With no check-in desks, airlines will be alerted to a passenger’s intention to fly when they arrive at the airport and their face is scanned.

For passengers with check-in luggage this will be at bag drop. 

Those travelling with just hand-luggage will first be scanned at the pre-security gates, which permit passengers access to the airport’s central search area.

Currently passengers must check-in online or at the airport on arrival, where they are issued with a boarding pass with a barcode which is scanned as a passenger proceeds through the airport, including at the gate before boarding.

“These changes are the biggest in 50 years,” said Valérie Viale, director of product management at Amadeus, the world’s largest travel technology company. “Many airline systems haven’t changed for more than 50 years because everything has to be consistent across the industry and interoperable.

“The last upgrade of great scale was the adoption of e-ticketing in the early 2000s. The industry has now decided it’s time to upgrade to modern systems that are more like what Amazon would use.”

The plans will require physical infrastructure at airports to be upgraded so they have facial recognition technology and the ability to read a passport from a mobile device. 

Crucially, the physical infrastructure will only verify the information - matching face to passport - and not store it, to, allegedly, remove the risk of data breaches.

At present, the airline process is static. You book a flight and then 48 or 24 hours before departure the check-in opens online. At this point your passport details are entered and, in the case of the UK, passed to the Home Office (UK airports do not have departure border formalities). You are also assigned your seat which then can’t be changed without reissuing the boarding pass.

With the new technology, passengers will be able to download the “journey pass” to the wallet on their phone, which will contain all the booking details, including any auxiliaries such as car hire that was bought with the flight. Also stored in the wallet will be biometric passport details.

Together with the use of facial recognition, passengers will be able to move through the airport without taking their phone or passport out of their pockets. Aware of the privacy risk, Amadeus said it has developed a system in which a passengers’ details are wiped within 15 seconds of each contact with a “touchpoint” - such as the pre-security gates.

“At the moment airlines have systems that are very siloed,” Viale told The Times. 

“There’s the reservation system that, when check-in opens, makes a handshake with a delivery system and says ‘here are my reservations, you can now deliver them’. In the future it’ll be far more continuous and the journey pass will be dynamic.”

It all sounds great in theory. But how many countries will adopt the new tech? Will workers rebel against the loss of jobs?  

And what happens when your phone battery runs out of charge, you can't access the wifi, or you land in Fat Arse, Idaho, and they demand to see your baggage tag? We shall see.

Image: Sven Bock,  Scop.io   

Travel to Romania and Bulgaria about to be less of a hassle

Want to venture behind what used to be called the Iron Curtain?

Intra European travel will become less of a hassle from March 31 when Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen zone, which allows free movement between member states for 400 million citizens.

The two countries have been members of the European Union (EU) since 2007 but as they were not part of the border-free area, travellers were still required to show passports upon entry.

In 2024, border controls for the two countries will be simplified, Euronews reports.

The two interior ministries announced in December that some border checks will be lifted.

Travellers arriving by air or sea from other Schengen zone countries will no longer have to show passports upon arrival. This means passengers on flights, cruises and ferries will not be subject to checks.

If you are driving or arriving by train or bus into Romania or Bulgaria, however, you will still need to carry ID as rules governing land borders have not yet been confirmed.

The most recent country to join the Schengen zone was Croatia in 2022.

Every year, 1.25 billion trips take place within this area and 3.5 million people cross the borders of its member countries every day.

Not counting Romania and Bulgaria, the zone comprises 27 states. Twenty-three belong to the EU and four are associated states of the European Free Trade Association: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The Schengen zone was created in 1995 following the signing of the Schengen Agreement 10 years earlier between five member states of the European Economic Community: Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Several other agreements followed until the 2007 enlargement, integrating nine additional countries into the free movement area.

Travellers without EU citizenship are advised that stays in Bulgaria and Romania will now count towards time spent in the Schengen zone, which cannot be longer than 90 days in 180 days.

Britain is not so great when it comes to travel technology

If there was a world championship for travel cock-ups then post-Brexit Britain would be a near certainty for a gold medal.

The past 48 hours have been particularly impressive.

British Airways, as is often the case, led the way with ‘chaos’ with a second day of flight cancellations following an IT issue.

BA cancelled at least 42 flights on Saturday due to knock-on effects.

Most were on short-haul routes from and to Heathrow Airport. The IT glitch grounded around 80 flights on Friday.

All passengers have been advised to check their flight status before leaving for the airport

“While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate, we have cancelled some of our short-haul flights from Heathrow,” BA said.

BA says most cancellations are on routes where there are multiple departures a day, Travel Mole reported.

In-coming passengers, meanwhile, suffered delays of up to four hours after passport e-gates failed.

Travellers were stuck in queues at airports including Heathrow, Manchester and Gatwick.

All airports across the country using the technology were affected.

The e-gate system speeds up passport control by allowing some passengers to scan their own passports. It uses facial recognition to verify identity and captures the traveller's image.

People flying into the UK had to have their passports checked manually, with larger airports with e-gates most affected.

Heading for a few drinks on a night out? Don't forget your passport!

You are heading out for a night on the town in Thailand.

Conscious of drink spiking and other issues, you place your passport, credit cards and other important documents safely in your hotel safe.

Better safe than sorry, so to speak.

While you are enjoying a few drinks and the entertainment, the local police raid the establishment and demand your passport.

Our Thai correspondent says this is a growing trend. 

If you can't produce your passport you might be asked to pay a "fine" - in cash of course - to absolve yourself.

The Pattaya News reported this week that Pattaya Police and immigration authorities launched "a city-wide search" targeting foreigners who might have overstayed their visas, or been involved in illegal activities.

The paper reported, apparently tongue firmly in cheek, that "about 50 law enforcement officers swept across Pattaya City to deter illegal activities".

And what did they find? Nothing. How many criminals did they arrest? Err, none.

The officers told the Pattaya News that they mostly targeted foreigners working illegally in Pattaya, overstayers, and illegal migrant workers.

Separated into three groups, the police and immigration visited nightclubs and several venues around crowded tourist spots such as Walking Street and Soi 6 to check tourists’ passports for overstayers.

They also searched venue employees to see if they carried any weapons or illicit drugs.

Here's the kicker. Pattaya Police said the inspection "succeeded at deterring crime as nothing illegal was found".

Not exactly a way to encourage tourism though. And demanding tourists carry their passports surely increases their chances of being mugged, or robbed. Completely illogical. 

Is it time to say goodbye to paper passports forever?

Is it time to say goodbye to passports forever?

British Airways to trial biometric technology to enable passengers to travel through their departure airport without showing their passport.

Customers involved in the airline’s trial at Heathrow Airport terminal 5 can scan their face, passport and boarding pass on their smartphone ahead of travel.

When they arrive at the airport, Smart Bio-Pod cameras can verify their identity in under three seconds, Travel Mole reports.

David Breeze, Operations Transformation Manager for British Airways, said: “This is a secure and efficient tool that makes for a smarter airport experience, which will reduce the time it takes us to board aircraft.

“The technology also frees our people up to look after more complex customer enquiries."

The trial will run for six months using British Airways flights to Malaga, Spain, as the test case.

Customers who opt in will be invited to make use of the Fast-Track security lane and priority boarding.

If successful, they process is expected to be extended to more international flights.

It follows the introduction of automated biometric technology on British Airways’ domestic flights in 2017. That technology records customers’ facial scans at security and matches it to them at the boarding gate.

Given Australia's speed of take-up of new technology, we should see this come into operation in around 2035.

Playing the powerful passport game

Japan and Singapore continue to share top spot on the Henley Passport Index - the global rankings list of all the world's passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

Passport holders from Japan and Singapore are able to access 192 destinations around the world visa-free, not taking any temporary Covid restrictions into account, as of Q2, 2022.

Germany and South Korea hold joint-second place, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 190, while Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain share third place, with their passport holders able to access 189 destinations around the world without having to acquire a visa in advance. 

The UK, which recently dropped all remaining Covid-related restrictions, now has a score of 187, with the US just one place behind, with a score of 186.

New Zealand is also on 186 with Australia trailing on 185, alongside Canada.  

Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the index­ — which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) — with its nationals only able to access 26 destinations visa-free.

Dr Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners, says the latest update provides a unique snapshot of a volatile and rapidly changing world.

"The country you are born in dramatically impacts the quality and extent of opportunities you will have in your life as well as the challenges you might face along the way," he said.

"Holding more than one citizenship, with the range of personal access rights each guarantees, is the ultimate asset in a time of crisis and volatility."

The Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. If no visa is required, then a score with value = 1 is created for that passport. The same applies if you can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination.

Discover the most powerful passports on the planet

Passport holders from Singapore and Japan are the luckiest in the world.

The latest results from the Henley Passport Index show record-breaking levels of travel freedom for citizens of Japan and Singapore, but also the widest recorded global mobility gap since the index's inception 17 years ago.

Without taking temporary Covid-related restrictions into account, passport holders of the two Asian nations can now enter 192 destinations around the world visa-free - which is 166 more than Afghanistan, which sits at the bottom of the index.

The deepening divide in international mobility between wealthier countries and poorer ones was bought into sharp focus late last year by a raft of Covid restrictions against mainly African nations that United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres described as akin to "travel apartheid."

According to historical data, an individual could, on average, visit 57 countries in 2006 visa-free. 

Today, that number has risen to 107, but this overall increase masks a growing disparity between countries in the global north and those in the global south, with nationals from countries such as Sweden and the US able to visit more than 180 destinations visa-free, while passport holders from Angola, Cameroon, and Laos can only enter about 50.

Germany and South Korea hold onto joint second spot on the latest ranking, with passport holders able to access 190 destinations visa-free, while Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain share third place, with a score of 189.

The US and the UK passports have regained some of their previous strength after falling in 2020 with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 186.

Australians have 185 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations.

Dr Christian H Kaeilin, the inventor of the passport index concept, says opening up migration channels is essential for post-pandemic recovery.

"Passports and visas are among the most important instruments impacting on social inequality worldwide as they determine opportunities for global mobility," he said.

"The borders within which we happen to be born, and the documents we are entitled to hold, are no less arbitrary than our skin color. Wealthier states need to encourage positive inward migration to help redistribute and rebalance human and material resources worldwide."

rong' nation can heavily impact on your access to business, health, and medical services, and make it impossible for some to travel."

Read the index: https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index

Image: Axel Buekert, Scop.io