ozstamps writes:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Clearly those sold on line are readily traced back to the initial recipient if UA makes a few "sting" purchases. If the seller matches the name on the cert, the accrued points in that account would be history I hope, as clearly warned about in the MP rules.</font>
Just to be clear:
United must be able to prove that the
original owner that was issued the certificate by United, was the
seller of the certificate.
And unless the original owner of the certificate was stupid enough to leave some traceable evidence direct to them (such as a United registered email or snail mail address that matches the eBay seller), United can rarely accomplish this.
As I've reported here many times, in my discussions with some folks at United about this subject, this is one of the reasons they don't go after many eBay sellers. They find it's
too hard and expensive time and manpower wise, to link to the sale to the
original owner and to gather any necessary evidence.
If I gift one of my Systemwides to some guy sitting next to me on a plane, and that guy turns around and sells it on eBay,
I've violated Mileage Plus terms and conditions??
Nope.
I might expect an inquiry. I might expect to be placed on a "watch list." I might expect to have my account temporaraly frozen on redemtions until an explanation were given.
But as long as the (proven) seller was not the person named on the cert...they couldn't do much to the original owners account.
My understanding is that when United does (rarely) attempt to participate in a "sting," it is mainly on those mass merchandisers that United has identified as a possible broker.
[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 05-17-2002).]