An Estonian man exploited a gap in Finnair's inflight duty free system, buying 49 watches and other goods with cards that had no funds.
Sounds like this guy... is going to HEL.
Finland is probably one of the better countries to go to jail. I could see going to HEK being worse. 😉
I guess this is only the tip of the iceberg. I always wondered how many of the duty free or buy-on-board sales remain unpaid. I also suspect that criminal proceedings will only be launched above a certain amount.
I mean it's the oldest trick in the frequent flyer book to use a locked credit card for in-flight drink purchases.
"I thought i had money."
"Oh! Never mind our mistake."
Reminds me of a situation from Amtrak.
Way back when, in the era of the “knuckle buster” credit card machines that used carbon copy paper, the cafe and dining car staff would turn in envelopes full of those slips at the end of the trip that got sent to Philadelphia for processing. Needless to say this took weeks and sometimes the transactions wouldn’t go through - not necessarily the fault of the card member, either. Imagine seeing a dinner you bought 3 months ago pop up on your statement.
The watches were from Albania and did not keep time properly ; they were always slow by 5 minutes per hour .
What a joke to pull a scam on these crappy products lmfao
Wondering if these Suunto watches had a Finnair branding. If not, why did he even associate them to Finnair when selling online….
Let’s not pretend this type of fraud doesn’t still happen, just in a different form. In fact I see it every week in my Entertainment businesses.
We have customers come in, make drink purchases, and then a week later declare it as fraud. That act alone costs me $35, then we have to go back, look up their receipt and video footage, and appeal the fraud… hours of labor later, we have a 50/50 chance of getting that $10 charge reinstated, and NO chance of getting the $35 dispute fee back. This even happens with customers we know.
Interestingly, and tellingly, it happens more towards the end of the month which is when customers rents are due.
It’s another form of credit card fraud for sure, but just it’s being done by the customers themselves.
There are certain gift cards that without any funds remaining work for alcohol purchases on WN. I have been doing this since they stopped issuing drink coupons. I don't do it as much now because of assigned seats unless I can move to a different seat.
(These same gift cards are great for free trial subscriptions that require a credit card when signing up that will be charged if you don't cancel in time. This way you don't have to worry about paying, but you won't receive the service after the free trial ends.)
We're getting the British translation when the story reports that he purchased "sweets." In British English, "sweets" is the general term for what Americans call "candy."