Ticket counterfeiting and fraud have plagued Travel & Entertainment for as long as tickets have been produced. Recently, however, the phasing out of printed tickets by the travel industry (especially airlines, where paper tickets are on track to disappear completely by the end of 2007), along with strong ID requirements, have dramatically reduced forgery problems. But vulnerabilities still abound. E-ticketing, considered by many to be a savior of the ticketing security, does not pervasively address the multitude of threats that accompany ticket exchange. Without a layered security approach that includes inter-modal protection (from electronic to print and vice versa), these ticket-based industries may soon be subject to greater fraud.
Areas of Concern
Tickets
While physical tickets are increasingly being replaced by eTickets, fraud still plagues many events, from sports competitions to music concerts and other performances. Pro football continues to be the most popular sport for ticket counterfeiting, and many teams report dozens to hundreds of forged tickets per game. While eTicketing may be cost prohibitive for many of the activities that still use traditional tickets, the issue of security should not be ignored. Admitting more people than necessary, or admitting the wrong people, to a venue can have grave consequences for any event or mode of travel, not the least of which is a reduction customer satisfaction and retention.
eTickets
The introduction of eTickets to both travel and entertainment venues has undermined many of the techniques used to counterfeit physical tickets, but has not completely solved the security puzzle. Event eTickets are still primarily bar code based, and can be printed from the purchaser’s computer. However, there is no embedded technology that prohibits copying, meaning that printouts can easily be forged and sold over marketplace websites. ETickets need layers of security to protect the consumer under all circumstances, even in the rare cases where bar code scanners break down.
Outlook
The travel and entertainment industries have made great advances toward solving the problem of counterfeit tickets. Bar code scanning and eTicketing delivery have proven to be a potent combination, though vulnerabilities continue to plague the process. Foundational technology that can be easily imbedded into tickets and eTicket printouts are imperative to the ongoing security of ticketing. This kind of protection can travel with the document from the electronic world to the print world and could be automatically implemented with any desktop printer. For ubiquitous security, travel and entertainment need to protect tickets at the consumer end, as much as they protect them at the gate.
AuthentiGuard On-Demand Can Help
AuthentiGuard-On-Demand is a sophisticated print security technology that combines the benefits of copy and tamper protection with the ability to conceal sensitive data within printed documents. Utilizing standard desktop and commercial printers, the solution provides for the dynamic delivery of comprehensive protection to traditional tickets, etickets and other print-based forms of entry/access to travel and events.