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Crooks also make mistakes as it is apparent in this fraud attempt. |
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At first it all looked very standard. A passenger called by phone the travel agency , spoke to an consultant and booked an airline ticket from Sydney to London and a second ticket from London to Lagos. After a few more phone calls all seems to be ok and the passenger was ready to pay . The passenger claimed to be working on a coastal ship and can not be reached by phone at most times. Anyway to make sure all is in order the passenger sent a fax with his passport copy and copy of his Visa card and advised a local address (a bit out of town). Right up to this time the consultant had no daubs that is was a genuine case. Not so the manager when he had a look at the fax the alarm bells rang right away. The first and family name on the passport copy was distinct African (Nigerian) but the picture was very much Caucasian. So the consultant advised the passenger on his next call that he would need to come in personally to the office to complete the transaction. Never heard from him again. Further investigation revealed that the American passport copy was a fake and so was the copy of the Visa card. The visa card number, security code and expiry date was related to an genuine card and would have gotten approved initially. The crooks must have used Photoshop or similar software to alter the names on the documents. The advised address actually did exist (a boatshed) If this scam would have succeeded most like only the ticket London to Lagos would have been used.
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