Carpenter Law Group

09/13/2026

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you've commented WAVE26 on my post -- I think you need to go to the Steer Your Marketing post that I've shared, in order to get access. Sorry for creating confusion!

That “dream client” asking you to book a $20,000 last-minute trip? 🚩

They might not be a dream client at all.

And the scary part?

Travel scams are getting a LOT harder to spot.

The weird email with terrible grammar?

That’s not necessarily what fraud looks like anymore.

Scammers can use AI to create more convincing emails, imitate voices, fake documents, and make a fraudulent request look surprisingly legitimate.

Which means heading into Wave Season, protecting your travel business needs to be part of your preparation.

That’s why travel industry attorney and agency owner Carpenter Law Group is joining us for Prep for Wave Week to talk about how travel advisors can get in front of fraud and scams before they become an expensive problem.

In this session, Tom is breaking down:

→ Why chargeback fraud is such a big issue for travel advisors,and the documentation that matters

→ Why you need a valid credit card authorization for every transaction

→ Red flags to watch for with last-minute, high-value booking requests

→ How scammers may start with a small legitimate-looking booking to build your trust before making a much larger request

→ Why you should be VERY cautious about clicking links sent by unfamiliar prospects

→ How AI is making phishing, voice impersonation + deepfake scams more convincing

→ How to approach wire transfers more carefully when large amounts of money are involved

→ Why agency owners need their ICs following fraud-prevention best practices, too

And one of Tom’s simplest rules might save you from a massive headache...

If a new prospect wants to schedule a call, YOU send the meeting link.

If they insist you use theirs? 🚩 Pay attention.

During Wave Season, you're going to be so excited about new inquiries and bookings, but not every inquiry deserves an automatic yes.

Sometimes, protecting your business means slowing down long enough to verify who you're actually doing business with.

🌊 Comment WAVE26 to watch Tom’s session and learn what you can put in place now to better protect the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

09/10/2026

I’m in Paris this week at the IFTTA (International Forum for Travel and Tourism Advocates) meeting, and one of the sessions is really standing out to me: Antonia Paniza of the University of the Balearic Islands is speaking on on how AI models are disrupting the marketplace for selling travel.

The point that stays with me: digital interfaces are designed to distort a consumer’s capacity to make an informed decision. Ranked results, default selections, urgency cues, and now AI-generated recommendations all shape choices the traveler never sees being shaped, in service of interests the traveler can’t identify.

That is exactly why a travel advisor’s expertise and personal knowledge are worth more now than ever. Your value isn’t access to information — information is abundant and often manipulated. Your value is that your information is trustworthy and neutral. You’ve been to the property. You know which supplier picks up the phone at 2 a.m.

Which is also the caution. If you plan a client’s trip with the same AI they could have prompted themselves, you’ve handed back the one thing that makes you irreplaceable. Use the tools for administrative lift if you like, but don’t outsource the judgment your clients are paying for. Don’t undercut your own value proposition — it has never been higher.

09/03/2026

Today, I participated in the Maryland Department of Labor’s stakeholder call regarding the State’s new seller-of-travel law. On behalf of our firm's travel industry clients, I explained why agencies that act solely as booking agents, do not provide the underlying travel services, and do not receive or hold client funds should not be regulated in the same way as suppliers or merchants of record. I also emphasized that a separately disclosed professional fee or supplier commission should not transform a booking agency into the principal seller of the travel service.

•••One important point from the call. Even though the law is scheduled to go into effect in October of this year, the State of Maryland has acknowledged that they will be unable to finalize regulations and implement the requirements until 2027, at the earliest. So, it seems that we've got a little bit of breathing room.•••

ASTA was also represented on the call and (as always) continues to do a great job advocating for travel advisors. A number of agency owners and independent contractors participated as well, and our message was remarkably consistent: the law is fundamentally flawed and will likely require a legislative fix. We appreciate the Department’s willingness to hear from the industry, and our firm will continue advocating for practical regulations that recognize how modern travel agencies actually operate.

09/02/2026

Advocating for travel advisors and agencies is a big part of what we do. This week, in response to their call for comments, we’ve submitted comments to the State of Maryland explaining why agencies that act only as booking agents and don’t hold client funds shouldn’t be treated as sellers of travel under the State’s new regulations. The current law may not allow for that distinction in the rulemaking process, but, we’re recommending a legislative fix if they determine they can't exempt booking agents from the new requirements. If you'd like to learn more and weigh in, Maryland is hosting a Google Meet on the topic tomorrow, September 3, at 10:00 a.m. ET. Information on how to join the call is below: https://labor.maryland.gov/license/op-travel-sellers.shtml

08/21/2026

Thanks very much to Travel Industry Association of Florida and the ASTA South Florida Chapter for their warm hospitality yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many industry professionals at your event, and I hope my presentation was well-received!

08/18/2026

Phishing email -- look at the sender's address. This didn't come from CLIA - Cruise Lines International Association. Be careful before you click on a link in an email. Don't engage with scammers just because you think it's fun to string them along. Install anti-virus and anti-phishing software. Enable two-factor authentication on your accounts. Report. Block. Delete.

07/16/2026

NOTE: This post was not intended to start a round of personal attacks. I'm disabling comments, and deleting the personal attacks. I'm talking about patterns I see in the industry, and this post is not directed at anyone personally.

A former independent contractor recently filed a misclassification complaint with the IRS against one of our travel agency clients — and the IRS closed the file after reviewing the relationship and finding no basis to proceed, thanks in large part to a strong IC agreement and solid practices around how that relationship was managed.

For agency owners:

If you’re working with IC sub-agents, this is why a real, well-drafted IC agreement (plus good day-to-day practices) matters so much. You can’t stop someone from complaining, but you can put yourself in a strong position when a regulator looks under the hood.

For IC advisors:

Please don’t treat social media as your employment lawyer. A lot of what you see online about what the agency can or can't do is flat-out wrong or wildly oversimplified. If you’re worried about your own setup, get your actual contract and facts in front of someone who understands travel-industry ICs — not a Facebook comment thread.

06/29/2026

AI is great at a lot of things. It is horrible at practicing law.

We’d strongly recommend that you resist the urge to run your legal and proprietary documents through generative AI. For one thing, every time I've seen AI return feedback about a legal document, it’s made recommendations which, if adopted, would create tremendous liability and legal risk if our client implemented them. I haven’t seen AI get the law right — not even once.

Second, you’re waiving attorney/client privilege when you upload your docs to a third-party AI tool, and that could be a disaster if you were to ever get into a dispute about anything that’s in those documents.

And on top of that, your confidential and proprietary information is stored on a server, used to train the bot, and can be accessed by third-parties without authorization — so you’d have a really hard time enforcing any type of confidentiality provision from that point, on.

We know that people just want to make sure that they’ve got everything covered appropriately, and we’re not offended if people want to check our work, but using AI to do that can really create lots of problems in your business, which most people don’t fully appreciate.

06/25/2026

ALERT for Travel & Tourism Businesses: Don't Ignore This Mail

If you've recently received what looks like a bulk mailer — or even something that resembles spam — from a person named Vivek Shah, do not throw it away.

Shah is a serial pro se litigant who has been sending out mass demand letters and draft complaints to businesses across the country, alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (C**A) related to website tracking tools. His letters arrive via bulk mail and can easily be mistaken for junk mail.

Here's why this matters: He has actually filed these lawsuits. Travel and tourism companies are among his targets, and the potential statutory damages under C**A start at $5,000 per violation.

Our office has been advising travel businesses on exactly these types of claims. Reach out — we're here to help.

06/12/2026

Small Business Alert: When "Women-Owned" or "Minority-Owned" Labels Become Legal Vulnerabilities

A phone call to a travel agency owner we represent highlights a new area of concern for businesses that tout being "women-owned" or "minority owned."

Our client proudly markets her business as a "women-owned-and-operated" agency. Recently, she received an unsolicited inquiry from a male applicant asking if he could apply. In today’s legal climate, this carries hidden risks.

With conservative legal groups actively targeting diversity initiatives, public labels like "women-operated" can be viewed by activist networks or applicants as an unwritten hiring policy that excludes men or majority groups. Recent Supreme Court rulings and EEOC guidelines mean "reverse discrimination" claims face fewer legal hurdles than ever before.

Our suggestion: Standarize your replies to unexpected inquiries, make it clear that all applicants are welcome, and celebrate your entrepreneurship, but also lean into your skill and expertise when marketing your business.

Protecting your business assets doesn't mean erasing who you are—it means making sure your public branding is legally secure.

Claims of reverse discrimination, a subject of recent court and executive attention, can be assessed with the same statistical approaches as discrimination.