was 40,000 feet above the Pacific on a Korean
Airlines flight when my shopping spree
supposedly took place. The evidence that I
uncovered now, twenty years later, was a
photocopy of the signed ‘charge’ that VISA sent
to me as part of the fraud investigation. Ahhh,
one more travel scam to add to my collection
which now tips the scales at about 150 different
scams.
hotel in Bangkok apparently faxed my credit
card information to Chiang Mai—361 miles to
the north —where an associate proceeded to
charge 46,750 Baht (roughly $2500.00 at the
time) to my VISA card. I only used that card
TRAVEL SCAMS CAN FOLLOW YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO
The trick is to be aware and recognize ‘the symptoms’ when they appear
Recently I finally got around to cleaning out my
file cabinet and in the process, found all sorts of
hidden treasures. There was the report of my
‘arrest’ for vagrancy in 1969 when the Town of
Midland Police Department agreed to two?
Figure 1 Would you like a free 'good-luck' bracelet? How aboutlet my
friends and I sleep overnight in the jail so we
wouldn’t have to spend money on a hotel. The
next morning, the officer signed our ‘warrant;
with the title “Occifer” as a souvenir of our stay’.
Then there was my Air Canada “Flight to the
Moon” certificate issued after the Moon landing
in 1969. The airline perhaps jumped the gun a
bit with enthusiasm by starting a wait-list for
Moon flights. I’m still curious about the number
of Aeroplan miles that will add to my total.
But what brought a sentimental tear to my eye
was the discovery of the file I created in 1993
regarding my very first credit card scam.
While I was flying back to Toronto from a trip to
Thailand, the travel agency in the lobby of my
hotel in Bangkok, decided to fax my credit card
information to Chiang Mai—361 miles to the
north —where an associate proceeded to
charge 46,750 Baht (roughly $2500.00 at the
time) to my VISA card. I only used that card
once during my entire trip. My alibi was that I
once during my entire trip—at that travel
agency. My alibi was tight. I was 40,000 feet
above the Pacific on a Korean Airlines flight
when the shopping spree took place. And what
I discovered twenty years later in my file
drawer, was a photocopy of the signed ‘charge’
that VISA sent to me as part of the fraud
investigation. Ahhh… one more travel scam to
add to my collection, which now tips the scales
at about 150 different travel-related scams.
A travel scam is any form of trickery, deceit,
misrepresentation, or the taking advantage of
someone that ends up separating that person
from their possessions (e.g. a camera, laptop,
briefcase, wallet etc.). And while the travel
industry may enjoy a high season generally
from December through March, travel scams
flourish, thrive and prosper throughout the year.
The most common scams are labelled as
‘distraction scams’. Simple enough to execute,
they usually involve two scam artists. One
creates the distraction while the other runs off
with your possessions. A typical distraction
would be the classic scenario of someone
enjoying a cappuccino in one of the piazzas in
Rome. The tour guide instructs everyone to