FAQ: Victim of Fraud
Dec 5, 2014, 8:45 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Northern Ontario
Programs: AC SE (2008-2013), SPG Platinum (06-NOW)
Posts: 160
Victim of Fraud
Warning to fellow frequent travelers about a bogus travel agencies/agents can be found at Kijiji.....
This is my story:
Was searching for a good deal for our Christmas trip (high season) to visit family in LA. Searching to fly to LAX ex YYZ with *Alliance Airlines - we don't want to fly with AE points. Finally sometimes in the mid of October we found an ad at Kijiji claiming to be a travel agent representing Air Canada. Agree to purchased a RT AC 'Flex' ticket from him for $610 per person X 3 of us. To assure us of his credential, he told us not to pay him (he only wanted to be paid by EMT or direct transfer to his TD Account) until everything is confirmed by Air Canada. In the evening at that very same day, we received an email confirmation from 'Air Canada' confirming our booking. For our assurance again, I called Air Canada reservation hotline to confirm about the booking, the agent told us that the confirmation is valid and all e-ticket for the 3 of us has been issued - The agent even updated our AE# and our contact info on the reservation. After receiving this affirmation from Air Canada phone agent and also found the validity of the booking rev# from Air Canada website, we becoming certain that the reservation is good and we then make the payment to this agent (direct deposit to his TD Account).
More than a month after, I received a phone call from Air Canada stating that there might be a problem with the credit card were used to book our ticket. After explaining to this agent that we never paid for this reservation by credit card, but we purchase the ticket through the travel agent. The Air Canada agent called me back few days after and told me that the agent I dealt with is in fact fraudulent agent and Air Canada will cancel our tickets.
My dilemmas are few:
Why Air Canada didn't prevent this fraudulent transaction to happen in the first place? instead, wait for more than a month to tell us - that is after we booked our prepaid hotels, rental cars, universal studio tickets, and etc. We have reported this to the RCMP fraud center and write a protest letter to Air Canada (cc: mr. Klaus and Ms. Raman) as why they will not honor the tickets issued by them due to their insufficiencies in detecting the fraud in the first place. Why punishing us on somebody elses or the reservation system insufficiencies or other's fraudulent actions?
Today is a week after Air Canada told me that our tickets will be cancel, but everytime I check the reservation on Air Canada website, the reservation is still valid and still confirmed. We are awfully confused either we still can fly with this ticket or we have to buy another ticket for this trip.
--- Stupid me as a frequent traveler still can fall for this kind of scam ----
Warning to everyone:
This 'agent' use the name of John Khouri , known also as Mahmoud Aboude. He communicate via email or SMS : [email protected] or with some others email address using outlook.com, and he is using his phone: (514) 241-4010
If you are also a victim or have dealt with this person, please report it to the RCMP fraud center...
This is my story:
Was searching for a good deal for our Christmas trip (high season) to visit family in LA. Searching to fly to LAX ex YYZ with *Alliance Airlines - we don't want to fly with AE points. Finally sometimes in the mid of October we found an ad at Kijiji claiming to be a travel agent representing Air Canada. Agree to purchased a RT AC 'Flex' ticket from him for $610 per person X 3 of us. To assure us of his credential, he told us not to pay him (he only wanted to be paid by EMT or direct transfer to his TD Account) until everything is confirmed by Air Canada. In the evening at that very same day, we received an email confirmation from 'Air Canada' confirming our booking. For our assurance again, I called Air Canada reservation hotline to confirm about the booking, the agent told us that the confirmation is valid and all e-ticket for the 3 of us has been issued - The agent even updated our AE# and our contact info on the reservation. After receiving this affirmation from Air Canada phone agent and also found the validity of the booking rev# from Air Canada website, we becoming certain that the reservation is good and we then make the payment to this agent (direct deposit to his TD Account).
More than a month after, I received a phone call from Air Canada stating that there might be a problem with the credit card were used to book our ticket. After explaining to this agent that we never paid for this reservation by credit card, but we purchase the ticket through the travel agent. The Air Canada agent called me back few days after and told me that the agent I dealt with is in fact fraudulent agent and Air Canada will cancel our tickets.
My dilemmas are few:
Why Air Canada didn't prevent this fraudulent transaction to happen in the first place? instead, wait for more than a month to tell us - that is after we booked our prepaid hotels, rental cars, universal studio tickets, and etc. We have reported this to the RCMP fraud center and write a protest letter to Air Canada (cc: mr. Klaus and Ms. Raman) as why they will not honor the tickets issued by them due to their insufficiencies in detecting the fraud in the first place. Why punishing us on somebody elses or the reservation system insufficiencies or other's fraudulent actions?
Today is a week after Air Canada told me that our tickets will be cancel, but everytime I check the reservation on Air Canada website, the reservation is still valid and still confirmed. We are awfully confused either we still can fly with this ticket or we have to buy another ticket for this trip.
--- Stupid me as a frequent traveler still can fall for this kind of scam ----
Warning to everyone:
This 'agent' use the name of John Khouri , known also as Mahmoud Aboude. He communicate via email or SMS : [email protected] or with some others email address using outlook.com, and he is using his phone: (514) 241-4010
If you are also a victim or have dealt with this person, please report it to the RCMP fraud center...
Last edited by tcook052; Dec 6, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Dec 5, 2014, 9:10 am
#2
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, Bonvoy, Alaska, Avios
Posts: 1,290
Always always use a credit card to book. Hope you get everything sorted.
We were on the other end of a credit card scam where there were 3 AC tickets purchased on our Amazon.ca credit card ($1500 each). Our name and the names on the tickets were about as different as one could imagine. Why Chase or AC didn't flag the difference in names OR the tickets were I assume one-ways??? Also purchased just days before travel.
Odd too is that this card is only used for foreign purchases and not all that much.
A week before Capital One wouldn't let me pay my car insurance! I had to call to authorize the transaction. It's not like anyone can take off with a car insurance policy...
We were on the other end of a credit card scam where there were 3 AC tickets purchased on our Amazon.ca credit card ($1500 each). Our name and the names on the tickets were about as different as one could imagine. Why Chase or AC didn't flag the difference in names OR the tickets were I assume one-ways??? Also purchased just days before travel.
Odd too is that this card is only used for foreign purchases and not all that much.
A week before Capital One wouldn't let me pay my car insurance! I had to call to authorize the transaction. It's not like anyone can take off with a car insurance policy...
Dec 5, 2014, 9:15 am
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
An unfortunate and expensive lesson. A few useful tips:
1. Don't use TA's whom you don't personally know or who are recommended to you by people you know and trust. The TA ought to have a physical location which you can verify and it ought to be in your community. Even an honest TA located 1,000 miles away has no reason to expect your repeat business.
2. While there are occasions when certain opaque third-party vendors can obtain tickets in bulk and resell them at significant discounts below published fares, these are tricky and the savings are often not worth it in the end.
3. Here, where there is outright fraud, the giveaway was that the TA said he was prepared to pay for the tickets without payment from OP. No person in their right mind would do that for anybody but their closest friend or a valued client. OP was none of those.
4. AC has no way of knowing what the "TA" promised OP. Tickets were booked and paid for. The card turned out to be "bad" (we don't know why - perhaps it was stolen and not reported as such until OP's tickets showed up on it), so AC required payment.
This is one of those, "if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true" things. TA selling at below market, doesn't want payment in advance and it all turns out to be a fraud.
1. Don't use TA's whom you don't personally know or who are recommended to you by people you know and trust. The TA ought to have a physical location which you can verify and it ought to be in your community. Even an honest TA located 1,000 miles away has no reason to expect your repeat business.
2. While there are occasions when certain opaque third-party vendors can obtain tickets in bulk and resell them at significant discounts below published fares, these are tricky and the savings are often not worth it in the end.
3. Here, where there is outright fraud, the giveaway was that the TA said he was prepared to pay for the tickets without payment from OP. No person in their right mind would do that for anybody but their closest friend or a valued client. OP was none of those.
4. AC has no way of knowing what the "TA" promised OP. Tickets were booked and paid for. The card turned out to be "bad" (we don't know why - perhaps it was stolen and not reported as such until OP's tickets showed up on it), so AC required payment.
This is one of those, "if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true" things. TA selling at below market, doesn't want payment in advance and it all turns out to be a fraud.
Dec 5, 2014, 9:27 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: YYZ
Programs: AC*SE 2MM
Posts: 16,655
Thanks for the heads-up and sorry to hear how you got taken.
Unfortunately for you this is not Air Canada's problem to solve. The "agent" was almost certainly not an authorized travel agent (if they were, you likely have recourse through travel agency funds - especially since he seems to be based in Quebec).
Think of it as being the same as you asking me to book flights for you on AC.com on my credit card and you give me cash in exchange. If the credit card I use turns out to be stolen, the credit card company will almost certainly debit the airline who will cancel your ticket. Your issue is with me and you need me to go back to the airline with an alternate method of payment.
For now your choices are likely to be:
Unfortunately for you this is not Air Canada's problem to solve. The "agent" was almost certainly not an authorized travel agent (if they were, you likely have recourse through travel agency funds - especially since he seems to be based in Quebec).
Think of it as being the same as you asking me to book flights for you on AC.com on my credit card and you give me cash in exchange. If the credit card I use turns out to be stolen, the credit card company will almost certainly debit the airline who will cancel your ticket. Your issue is with me and you need me to go back to the airline with an alternate method of payment.
For now your choices are likely to be:
- Give up on the trip and lick your wounds.
- Demand that the guy make good to AC to retain the tickets (very doubtful that he will do so, but to CYA, you should probably make the written demand).
- Since AC hasn't (yet) cancelled the reservations, pay AC directly then try to recover your damages from Mr. Khouri/Aboude/???
- Take your chances that AC doesn't cancel the tickets prior to you flying. This is high-risk given that if you still do want to go to LA, it will likely be expensive to buy last minute flights (although as SE you can probably use IKK if they are not oversold).
Dec 5, 2014, 9:36 am
#6
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: E35
Posts: 139
To be fair to AC as well, they likely had no way of knowing the transaction was fraudulent until they got the chargeback from the credit card. Trying to match the credit card name to the pax is probably too difficult. There are too many real reasons the names would be different between the two to lock out those transactions. I work in Risk/Fraud Prevention, Kijiji is a nightmare for us. The rate of fraudsters posing as legitimate service providers is unbelievable.
Dec 5, 2014, 9:38 am
#7
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: ZRH/YXU
Programs: A3*G, OZ*G, OW Sapphire
Posts: 526
No worries OP, I'm sure the funds of your long lost uncle will be deposited any day now by the friendly people of the Royal Bank of Nigeria, just hold tight! I'm sure there'll be enough to splurge for business class too, who cares about the lost 2k?
Dec 5, 2014, 9:42 am
#8
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE*2MM. SPG Plat life
Posts: 4,644
Warning to fellow frequent travelers about a bogus travel agencies/agents can be found at Kijiji.....
This is my story:
Was searching for a good deal for our Christmas trip (high season) to visit family in LA. Searching to fly to LAX ex YYZ with *Alliance Airlines - we don't want to fly with AE points. Finally sometimes in the mid of October we found an ad at Kijiji claiming to be a travel agent representing Air Canada. Agree to purchased a RT AC 'Flex' ticket from him for $610 per person X 3 of us. To assure us of his credential, he told us not to pay him (he only wanted to be paid by EMT or direct transfer to his TD Account) until everything is confirmed by Air Canada. In the evening at that very same day, we received an email confirmation from 'Air Canada' confirming our booking. For our assurance again, I called Air Canada reservation hotline to confirm about the booking, the agent told us that the confirmation is valid and all e-ticket for the 3 of us has been issued - The agent even updated our AE# and our contact info on the reservation. After receiving this affirmation from Air Canada phone agent and also found the validity of the booking rev# from Air Canada website, we becoming certain that the reservation is good and we then make the payment to this agent (direct deposit to his TD Account).
More than a month after, I received a phone call from Air Canada stating that there might be a problem with the credit card were used to book our ticket. After explaining to this agent that we never paid for this reservation by credit card, but we purchase the ticket through the travel agent. The Air Canada agent called me back few days after and told me that the agent I dealt with is in fact fraudulent agent and Air Canada will cancel our tickets.
My dilemmas are few:
Why Air Canada didn't prevent this fraudulent transaction to happen in the first place? instead, wait for more than a month to tell us - that is after we booked our prepaid hotels, rental cars, universal studio tickets, and etc. We have reported this to the RCMP fraud center and write a protest letter to Air Canada (cc: mr. Klaus Goersch and Ms. Raman Aujla) as why they will not honor the tickets issued by them due to their insufficiencies in detecting the fraud in the first place. Why punishing us on somebody elses or the reservation system insufficiencies or other's fraudulent actions?
Today is a week after Air Canada told me that our tickets will be cancel, but everytime I check the reservation on Air Canada website, the reservation is still valid and still confirmed. We are awfully confused either we still can fly with this ticket or we have to buy another ticket for this trip.
--- Stupid me as a frequent traveler still can fall for this kind of scam ----
If you are also a victim or have dealt with this person, please report it to the RCMP fraud center...
This is my story:
Was searching for a good deal for our Christmas trip (high season) to visit family in LA. Searching to fly to LAX ex YYZ with *Alliance Airlines - we don't want to fly with AE points. Finally sometimes in the mid of October we found an ad at Kijiji claiming to be a travel agent representing Air Canada. Agree to purchased a RT AC 'Flex' ticket from him for $610 per person X 3 of us. To assure us of his credential, he told us not to pay him (he only wanted to be paid by EMT or direct transfer to his TD Account) until everything is confirmed by Air Canada. In the evening at that very same day, we received an email confirmation from 'Air Canada' confirming our booking. For our assurance again, I called Air Canada reservation hotline to confirm about the booking, the agent told us that the confirmation is valid and all e-ticket for the 3 of us has been issued - The agent even updated our AE# and our contact info on the reservation. After receiving this affirmation from Air Canada phone agent and also found the validity of the booking rev# from Air Canada website, we becoming certain that the reservation is good and we then make the payment to this agent (direct deposit to his TD Account).
More than a month after, I received a phone call from Air Canada stating that there might be a problem with the credit card were used to book our ticket. After explaining to this agent that we never paid for this reservation by credit card, but we purchase the ticket through the travel agent. The Air Canada agent called me back few days after and told me that the agent I dealt with is in fact fraudulent agent and Air Canada will cancel our tickets.
My dilemmas are few:
Why Air Canada didn't prevent this fraudulent transaction to happen in the first place? instead, wait for more than a month to tell us - that is after we booked our prepaid hotels, rental cars, universal studio tickets, and etc. We have reported this to the RCMP fraud center and write a protest letter to Air Canada (cc: mr. Klaus Goersch and Ms. Raman Aujla) as why they will not honor the tickets issued by them due to their insufficiencies in detecting the fraud in the first place. Why punishing us on somebody elses or the reservation system insufficiencies or other's fraudulent actions?
Today is a week after Air Canada told me that our tickets will be cancel, but everytime I check the reservation on Air Canada website, the reservation is still valid and still confirmed. We are awfully confused either we still can fly with this ticket or we have to buy another ticket for this trip.
--- Stupid me as a frequent traveler still can fall for this kind of scam ----
If you are also a victim or have dealt with this person, please report it to the RCMP fraud center...
Last edited by tcook052; Dec 6, 2014 at 7:02 am
Dec 5, 2014, 9:44 am
#9
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2014
Programs: AC SE100K-1MM, NH, DL, AA, BA, Global Entry/Nexus, APEC..
Posts: 18,877
Dec 5, 2014, 9:45 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Toronto
Programs: UA 1K, AC MM E75, Marriott LT Ti, IHG Dia Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 15,521
Sorry to hear about your troubles OP. When you checked the ticket online, did it show a value of $610/ticket. How much is AC asking for you to keep your reservations?
Dec 5, 2014, 9:54 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Northern Ontario
Programs: AC SE (2008-2013), SPG Platinum (06-NOW)
Posts: 160
Why did you use the AC hotline and not your SE phone number. If the credit card was stolen(non reported), AC or any other business would not know this until the owner of the credit card found out and reported it. It can take up to 6 weeks for a business to find out a credit card was stolen and the charge back to show up on their account. Any third party transaction is iffy over the internet and always use a credit card.
Again, truly foolish for me to fall for this scam, I never thought that someone with the intention of scamming somebody willingly provide me with his Canadian bank account (too easy to track down by the authority). I am afraid is not actually a stolen credit card were used, but rather disputing the charge with hopes to get the credit back from the CC issuer. either or, this is scam and the case was reported to the authority.
* I guess I have to see if I will receive any response from Air Canada and hopefully they can also see my past history with them. I'm hoping that they will honor the tickets though, even though if they want me to pay some kind of fees or something...
Dec 5, 2014, 10:03 am
#12
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE*2MM. SPG Plat life
Posts: 4,644
My uncle has been busy. He just emailed me that he found $250,000,000 in a old family bank account with my name on it. He just needs my bank account number to transfer the cash!
Dec 5, 2014, 10:14 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Northern Ontario
Programs: AC SE (2008-2013), SPG Platinum (06-NOW)
Posts: 160
I'm confuse why the tickets are still valid until now? or will AC charge us the fare at the time of check in?
Last edited by mraquinas; Dec 5, 2014 at 10:19 am
Dec 5, 2014, 10:20 am
#14
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE*2MM. SPG Plat life
Posts: 4,644
As my profile indicated, 2013 was my last year i was an SE with AC
Again, truly foolish for me to fall for this scam, I never thought that someone with the intention of scamming somebody willingly provide me with his Canadian bank account (too easy to track down by the authority). I am afraid is not actually a stolen credit card were used, but rather disputing the charge with hopes to get the credit back from the CC issuer. either or, this is scam and the case was reported to the authority.
* I guess I have to see if I will receive any response from Air Canada and hopefully they can also see my past history with them. I'm hoping that they will honor the tickets though, even though if they want me to pay some kind of fees or something...
Again, truly foolish for me to fall for this scam, I never thought that someone with the intention of scamming somebody willingly provide me with his Canadian bank account (too easy to track down by the authority). I am afraid is not actually a stolen credit card were used, but rather disputing the charge with hopes to get the credit back from the CC issuer. either or, this is scam and the case was reported to the authority.
* I guess I have to see if I will receive any response from Air Canada and hopefully they can also see my past history with them. I'm hoping that they will honor the tickets though, even though if they want me to pay some kind of fees or something...
Dec 5, 2014, 10:22 am
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Northern Ontario
Programs: AC SE (2008-2013), SPG Platinum (06-NOW)
Posts: 160
If the charge is only disputed and the credit card number is not stolen, you have a chance. Ask AC for the type of credit card(IE Visa, MC, etc) and then phone the credit card company direct. With proof of T/T payment, along with airline file number, they may stop the dispute making your ticket valid. I know it's a small chance, but still a chance.