I saw on the scroll on Fox news that someone had been arrested for fraudulently obtaining frequent flier miles and selling them. I found this report on the internet:http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001163483. Does anybody know anything more about this? Just curious.

Steve Schurr

Your title is misleading. This guy was not a FF. He was caught stealing miles from different programs.

I believe he was just sentenced to jail time this week. He was caught about 6 months ago. He stole millions of dollars worth of miles, which in my book is no different than stealing money from the company you work for.

In the future, try to word your titles better.

Welcome to FT!

Arrested for selling them? Really? I thought he was prosecuted for fraudulently obtaining them ... as he correctly should be.

Considerable discussion of this, going back about a month, in this thread in MilesBuzz.

And I agree that the issue is not selling them, but stealing them. Selling miles violates the rules of most programs. You can lose the miles you sell, perhaps get your account closed and lose all your others, the person who buys them can find his/her ticket void when s/he tries to use it, but that's about it. The police aren't likely to get involved, and jail time won't be part of it. It was the stealing that got him into that kind of trouble.

darn, he ruined it for everyone else! I mean I manage the accounts of many friends and family members and they all know what I am doing but in a way we could at any time cash in and just have money and probably make a bundle! Of course everyone would get a cut so in a way this joker was thinking like a genious but then he blew it when he stole their miles. Had he told everyone I bet nothing would have happened. Sure I guess the airlines can get mad at you for selling awards but first you have to be stupid enough to get caught beyond just saying it is something you would do if...

MM

Perhaps you should read the story again. He stole the miles directly from the airlines.

you are right and yes I skimmed it as many people tend to do.
but still it may somehow mess with my above scheme just cuz it is potentially in the same general family of people mucking with the value and monetary worth of airline miles.

oh well.

hey they steal from us every time they board us on one of their planes. That dont mean its right but yeah, I'll do whatever I can to grab my extra bottle of wine or mini booze when I am aboard--and then some... tee hee hee

MM

Nobody has pointed out that Perrott is an Australian. Maybe he's a descendant of the earliest arriving English settlers, not exactly the same stock as arrived at Jamestown or Plymouth Rock.

Most people don't skim an article with only 94 words.

It's possible for most people (>50%?) to do one thing, while many people (>a few?) do the opposite. And the Australian newspaper article linked to in earlier post was longer than 94 words.

Perhaps this is how "Fox News" referred to this guy.
Time to switch the remote. :-: @:-)

All things are possible but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not even "many" or even "some" (most>many>some>few) people skim such a brief article.

I skimmed thru the very short first post on the subject when I actually found THIS thread first:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=497004

...and not the one that is actually where we are typing now. I had actually not yet read the http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001163483 web article and so yeah, big deal. I admit not reading it even if it was short so, whatever. Arrest me! and thanks, itsme , for your theory on such readings.

But while everyone's on the subject of finding errors in people's ways, what was that other comment supposed to mean where "...Nobody has pointed out that Perrott is an Australian. Maybe he's a descendant of the earliest arriving English settlers, not exactly the same stock as arrived at Jamestown or Plymouth Rock."

ha ha ha

Does this somehow infer that all aussie decendents are obvious criminals? (if so that makes me like them even better) Well, I figure that some of the Jamestown and Plymouth Rock peeps did a bit of native butchering and slave trading in their days, so I guess the judgement all depends on what side of the law of the times you are on! Today it IS the Fox News types and those they tout, who seem to get away with murder!

Hence my new stance that this bloke who allegedly stole the miles we are talking about can in fact be considered by some to be a Robin Hood of sorts!

Cool!

BTW, nowhere in the original post that I read or skimmed did it say anything about stealing miles from airlines so sue me if I missed that, but if I lose the lawsuit, please allow me to pay you off with my mileage earning credit card, ok?

LOL

MM

FOX NEWS... "WE REPORT you Decide" <-- old
FOX NEWS... "WE DECIDE...then Report" <-- new

The fraud was amusingly first discovered by Air New Zealand who found a suspiciously high number of the transactions had been generated at only one terminal in the airport. It was a fraud prosecution.

But no different than the settlers in Georgia. Perhaps you should read "The Fatal Shore"