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162 passenger attempted travelling with tickets purchased fraudulently with misappropriated credit cards where arrested at airports around the world.
By Peter Titze
This recently released news item sounds like a major blow to international credit card fraudster but its more likely that Interpol is barking at the wrong tree. Those 162 may very well to a large extend be victims themselves who purchased the tickets in good faith from travel agents mainly in Nigeria & Ghana. Even the agents selling the ticket could be victims of the same scam at best not well informed of the current situation in the travel industry.
There was a time when airlines had a tendency to sell the same tickets at widely different prices throughout the world, distributed via appointed consolidators/wholesaler. It all depended on where and from whom passenger or travel agents purchased the tickets. E.g. A return ticket for travel Sydney-Amsterdam with a major airline could have cost A$ 2100.– if purchased directly from the airline or around A$ 1900.– if purchased from most local travel agents. A few local agents could have also been selling the same ticket for A$ 1450.– because they purchased it overseas for A$ 1100.– Strangely the lowest local seller made the most profit. Of course this practise was not widely advertised besides it was totally legal. At least one agent in Sydney sold over A$ 10 million ticket in one year on assorted airline tickets, all imported from overseas supplier and all passenger completed their journey without any problems. This was by no means a one way trade. Numerous Australian based “off line” airline offices contributed greatly unknowingly or “don't want to know about”, to this international trade by offering fares worthwhile to be exported. Anyway this situation largely does not exists anymore but some agent may still have memory of it and therefore fall victim to the current scam. (Currently a book is written on this subject)
Most victims of the current scam are travel agents. The selling agent may have been approached by the crooks offering a substantial discount on assorted airline tickets for departures in the near future but point out that it can not always be done (depends on allotment) So the agent sells the ticket, collects the regular fare and than orders the ticket from the crooks who themself orders the ticket from unsuspecting agents from around the world. If it does not work out the agent just obtains the ticket from regular sources so only the passenger runs the risk (unknowingly) to be arrested if travelling with an fraudulently obtained ticket. This is not an hypothetical suggestion but agents are approached in this fashion.
The main victims are the travel agent issuing the tickets & visa is uncooperative to prevent fraud How MasterCard handles the situation needs further investigation but Visa is uncooperative in fraud prevention. The crooks are well trained in fooling the selling agent. The credit cards used in the transaction are not reported as lost or stolen and therefore the sale gets approved by the credit card company initially. The problem starts when the real cardholder get the statement and complains about the unrecognized charges. The credit card company now contacts the selling agent and ask for proof that the sale originated actually from the cardholder. The travel agent is unable to provide this proof since no real “live signature” is on file. Consequently the credit card company charges back whatever it was and credits the cardholder back in line with there 100% no risk guarantee offered to there cardholders. The only looser is the travel agent. AMEX seems to be more cooperative in preventing this fraud than Visa. On request Amex may try to contact the cardholder if the agent suspects fraud to verify the transaction Visa apparently is uncooperative (After all they are not the one loosing) The crooks are well aware of this situation and would rarely use AMEX. The problem with Visa are well known. In one case a client booked a flight from Sydney to Auckland against the advise of the agent with an obscure airline. The agent accepted payment by Visa and paid the airline cash for the ticket because the airline did not accept payment by credit card. Unfortunately the airline went bust before the passenger was travelling and consequently the cardholder complained to Visa “Service paid for was not provided” so Visa refunded the cardholder and charged back to the agent. In the same situation AMEX did not charge back the agent but covered the loss themself. In a recent case a agent expected a case of attempted fraud and contacted Visa but no interest was shown, so fortunately the agent did not go ahead with the transaction and prevented any loss . The crooks may have very well used the card details to continue with fraudulent transaction trying elsewhere . This would have been preventable if Visa would have at least shown interest in the cardholders details but proofed “unwilling or unable” to contact the cardholder to check if it would have been a proper transaction. It can not be ruled out that the cardholder is involved in this scam. The only way in this kind of scenario for Visa to be on the loosing end would be if the merchant actually would go out of business (bankrupt) prior before Visa can charge back the merchant.
Airlines covering themself. Most airlines require passenger who purchased airline tickets online to present the credit card on check. In this way eliminating the risk that the card is used to purchase tickets for “3rd party's” This safeguard became apparent when recently a group of Filipino pilgrims tried to board a Singapore Airlines flight from Sydney to Rome where refused boarding. The tickets where purchased from a local licensed travel agent but apparently charged to an cardholder residing in Indonesia and since the card holder was not present Rome was a NO GO. It appears the usual “modus operate” for the crooks is to initial book a ticket in the card holders name. This is to gain the confidence of the agent. This initial ticket is unlikely to be used but the ticket in the next transaction booked after the “” initial service satisfactory provided” and booked in the name of the actual passenger is going to be used..
More tricks need further investigation. Its possible that a “passenger”” appears at a travel agency and books a ticket either for himself or someone else presenting a real looking credit card and signs. This credit card could be a clone. The magnetic strip could be a copy of a real card and therefore gets approved while the name appearing on the card may be fake in the name of the person intend to travel. We requested information from the credit card company's who is responsible for losses incurred in this case but no reply received so far.
Three case studies of attempted fraud. 1. Almost succeed “ The Brisbane case”
2. Manager got suspicious “Fake passport, fake picture”
3. Failed “Hotel booking scam” but some agents got fooled
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