A woman
describing herself as a U.S. embassy employee in Mexico City phoned
Campbell Travel, a Dallas-based travel agency, saying she would be
buying air tickets on behalf of embassy staff.
It was a
scam.
The caller ordered
$75,000 worth of airline tickets on nine carriers, for which
Campbell Travel may end up liable.
Agency officials
stepped forward to tell their story for
two reasons: to alert other agents to this variation on a
well-known modus operandi and to remind agents they wont get much
help from airlines in preventing big losses.
Owner Bob Campbell
said the agency, which so far has received three debit memos for
about $5,000, determined that most of the tickets were converted
into vouchers. He said the agency reported the incident and the
voucher numbers to the airlines, and as far as he and CEO Bill Campbell can determine, no airline
has used the information to intercept the perpetrators.
The Campbells
acknowledge the fraudster managed to circumvent agency controls
meant to avoid such fraud, but they hold the carriers liable, as
well, for failure to help stop the theft.
Tickets were
written on nine non-U.S. airlines. Bill Campbell said, In talking
to the carriers, they just say the rest [of the debit memos] will
be coming.
The agency is
prepared to dispute later debit memos because it gave early
warning. If they wont settle or come to a middle ground, well
refuse to pay, Bill Campbell said.
Meanwhile, the
State Dept. said that every State location has one travel
management center and, per department policy, U.S. government
personnel assigned at the post are to use [that center] when making
official travel arrangements.
In other words,
no agency should be receiving cold calls from U.S. embassy
employees seeking to buy tickets for official travel.
Agents who wish to
report fraud or suspicions about phony embassy staff can call the
Office of the Inspector General at (800) 409-9926 or e-mail [email protected].
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].