Agency Falls Prey to Air Ticket Scam

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 won´t 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.