Mapleleaf: Both of those schemes are fraudulent even under the most narrow use of that term.

Sooner or later your friend will get caught. I doubt he will face criminal prosecution (the police, at least in this country, have better things to do than to chase people claiming miles that they don't deserve), but he may very well be booted and banned from certain hotel properties and lose his cherished FF miles.

Why would someone who obviously treasures his FF miles risk losing all of them with these types of schemes? Then again, why did Martha risk losing millions by lying about a $60,000 stock trade?

Penny wise, pound foolish.