Originally Posted by
SanDiegoTrvllr
What I don't understand is that on OTAs one can normally get legitimate RT PVG to/from YVR biz class tix for US$1800-2200 on CZ, HU, HX, JL, and AC. Spending $9400 for 5 J tix is not much of a savings.
If true this says to me that not only was she naive enough to fall for this scam (no comment on her character plenty of people fall for it) but she was also ignorant of, and too lazy to research, the market rates for the fares she purchased.
Additional thoughts. We don't know how sophisticated CaptainCooll's scam was;
He might have a credit card burner and burned the card in Anne's name and used that card to purchase the tickets. If the card has her name on it and is linked to her home address Air Canada can say "hey we sold the tickets to an Ann Qian at this address. You are Ann Qian at this address";
He might have a shell TA set up (I don't know how difficult it is to set up an OTA). He then would have presented himself as working as an agent of Air Canada to Ann, and as working as an agent of Ann to Air Canada, with the ability to bind the two to contracts. I don't know how the law treats this situation.
Also shouldn't a random anonymous stranger buying an airline ticket for Ann using a CC that is not in her name raise a whole bunch of red flags not just with AC but also with the CBSA??? From my armchair watching of border security this seems to be a pretty large red flag. Now, it's possible the question never came up during CBSA questioning or the scam was sophisticated enough to mask this fact (see above)