What a shame.

As someone who:
a) took great AAdvantage of the I.F./SPG deal and
b) feels a great deal of gratitude-- on a daily (if not hourly) basis-- to Randy for maintaining this wonderful resource we call "FT"

I wish I could track this person down and beat them to the fullest extent of the law. Very, very sad.

[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 09-10-2002).]

How come they can't track him down via FF account numbers through the hotel and/or airline?? I would think that this would be rather simple or back out the points from his account(s)

I would assume a truly proficient scamster would have set up everything from scratch; new SPG account, new QF account, new and disposable e-mail, etc. Knowing full well that "the clock was ticking" 'till the day the victim received his credit card bill-- and that the miles would have to be moved-- and the flights taken by that time. So nauseating to think about.

A scam? Yes. Does this person need to get caught? Yes.

But to beat them to the fullest extent of the law? C'mon, tough guy, take some anger management courses.

Quite a few of us have had our CCs scammed, our cars broken in, family taken from us, but to want to "beat somebody" to the fullest extent of the law is sick.

You are actually dangerous. that's it, "Danger in NYC" not "JonNYC."

Very sad to see it happen. As someone who used Qantas miles to book Concorde tickets, it is a shame to see this action seems to have closed the door on future similar deals for FlyerTalkers unless Randy gets help or input on this Benedict Wilkinson person. (Benedict ARNOLD seems more appropriate somehow.)

As someone who followed the Inside Flyer >> Starwood >> Qantas >> Concorde thread especially carefully, I am bemused at how it could possibly have occurred. From the date someone OK'd Randy's company to debit $1,250 for the required number of 'Inside Flyer' subs, the credit card of Steve Capelli was charged $1,250.

It took time for Randy's folks to get the transfer of bonus points happening from them to Starwood. Not long, to their credit, but a week or two most reported, sometimes longer in the mad period. The "official" version was that 6 weeks was to be expected IIRC.

The REAL slow issue however was the transfer on from Starwood >> Qantas. That took a MINIMUM 4 weeks and in some cases 6 weeks seemed very normal IIRC. It depended on end of month "sweep" timing etc. Qantas advised folks 8 weeks might usually be needed. And the full 125,000 QF transfer could NOT be done at once do not forget. You needed to do it in a number of smaller increments. 20K SPG points per day maximum.

THEN, when - and only when all the miles reached Qantas, could you book Concorde tickets. Until enough points were there - NO tickets possible. And in our case Qantas mailed us paper tickets, as it was a partner award. That took a couple weeks as well. No idea how long it took to get tickets to New Jersey.

So the FASTEST turnaround from day of ordering the subs to GETTING the BA Concorde paper tickets in your hand would be my assessment be TWO MONTHS. Absolute bare minimum, all things going well. And often longer as many here will confirm.

So I am curious. 2 tickets was $2,500 ball park. There may have been more of course - Randy does not specify number of Concorde tickets involved, but he does say "the actions of a few members" so it seems it was not a solo incident? I am curious why Steve Capelli, whose credit card was charged a 4 figure sum was not making a lot of noise with card company if he did not authorise/recognise the charge? Perhaps he did, but the clue trail to VISA would have been pretty crystal clear one might have thought once they spoke to 'Inside Flyer' about the charge. And on a likely fruadulent transaction they move FAST in my experience. In no way is this a negative commentary on Steve Capelli who I imagine is an innocent victim here. Randy says a criminal complaint has been laid over the issue, as per the link, but it does beg that obvious question to me.

The other curious thing is that whomever was the end user of the Concorde tickets was a brave soul. To turn up at a BA check-in desk, on a fixed date, holding paper tickets obtained fraudulently at least 2 months earlier, and not knowing how far VISA/Police/airline was progressed investigating it would require either nerves of steel or the IQ of a flea. Talk about walking right into a probably primed bear trap.

------------------
~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com



[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 09-10-2002).]

Maybe this should be highlighted at the top of each page instead of the Great Escape deal...more exposure can't hurt!

Are you completely unfamiliar with the concepts of irony and humor? See, you can't beat someone "to the fullest extent of the law"-- as the law would not permit such a beating-- you with me so far? The sentence is oxymoronic, if you will.

So, when I say that they should be "beaten to the fullest extent of the law" that is simply my way of expressing outrage over what has been done to our community.


[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 09-10-2002).]

Unless the crook re-sold the ticket on E-Bay, leaving the buyer to be met for a little "interview" at the gate.

For example, one "spotnana" (an eBay user with just one feedback point), supposedly from Austin, TX, is selling multiple BA tickets:

BA Concorde r/t for GBP 2500:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1377675256

BA Concorde r/t for GBP 3000:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1380373864

BA business class r/t for GBP 3000:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1380395417

The Concorde listing reads: "Selling 1 British Airways Concorde Roundtrip Ticket from NYC to London/Paris or from London/Paris to NYC. Serious buyers please only contact me. Need more tickets or want to find out other details. Please send me dates of travel and departure and destination cities." Gosh, wonder what he's up to here?

Or, perhaps there are older eBay auctions for BA Concorde tickets out there (that are no longer being picked up by the eBay public search engine)... but finding those would require assistance from the eBay people.

Even if this isn't the same guy, it looks pretty fishy... I'll forward this info to Randy; hope it helps.

[This message has been edited by danang (edited 09-10-2002).]

Here is the website connected to that ebay seller.
http://home.earthlink.net/~spotnana/index.html
Not to imply in any way, shape or form that they are connected to the topic here, just FYI.

danang. That does sound like a possibility for sure - selling on eBay. (Or via a ticket broker etc.)

To walk through that one - and again we are merely hypothesising here as Randy has not indicated in any wey the tickets were onsold. As the actual flier/s who turned up at airport presumably was "interviewed" by BA and/or Police one imagines he/they would need to fess up to buying the tickets from that source? I have little doubt in THAT case BA would refuse carriage and suggest he goes yell at the SELLER of the points/ticket.

As no flight/service would then have taken place, surely Randy would not be out of pocket in that case, as all points, all down the line were not actually used for product./service and would be able to be zeroed out? QF will allow an award ticket be cancelled for a pretty trival point amount - 5000 IIRC.

------------------
~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

Bit of a tangent, but I had my credit card scammed after purchasing an airline ticket.

Someone booked 3 one way tickets from NY to LA. AMEX was nice enough to call me to confirm if I authorizes the charges. It was flagged because I live in LA. When I told them no, they said they would follow up.

A month later, wouldn't you know it, the charges came through along with the incremental insurance for each ticket. I had to get them reversed. When I called the airline to find out if the people showed up and fly, no one at the airline could confirm what happened.

Don't know for sure, but it just seemed like three people got away with it and even though AMEX knew, they let it happen anyway.

I have to admit this happened well before last September, but security could not stop them since the tickets were issued for three different people with different names. And assuming they had the proper ID, I don't see why they would have been stopped.

Very sad indeed. Lets hope this character gets caught and busted soon.

I wonder if this is related.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/007515.html

http://frequentflyerpoints.com/

I came across it when looking for mile point on Yahoo search. Wild!

And there are more! See the quote from Randy on this web site:

http://www.awardtraveler.com/

I thought German politicians were the only crooks in Frequent Flyer land



[This message has been edited by reisevergnuegen (edited 09-11-2002).]