TEBOGO Felelo, an ITC from
a local consortium, says
she recently fell victim to
client credit card fraud after
processing bookings on
behalf of a global company,
as per the instruction
of a supposed company
employee who was using
what appeared to be a valid
company email address.
On January 5, Tebogo,
from SATC Reserve Travel,
maintains that she received
an email from the ceo
of a company whose
travel account she had
previously managed. He
said he had been contacted
by a Houston-based
representative of Kreston
International, a global
accounting firm. Tebogo
says the representative
was looking for a local
travel agency contact as he
needed to book a number of
tickets for staff members.
In the next week and
a half, Tebogo issued
approximately eight tickets
a day for the new client.
All tickets were issued in
economy class, using client
credit cards, for passengers
travelling that week ex-Lagos
to various destinations,
including the US, Dubai and
India. While a number of
airlines were used, most
tickets were booked on
EgyptAir and Emirates on the
Lagos-Dubai route.
However, when Tebogo
contacted Kreston’s Londonbased
ceo, enquiring which
channels to follow to receive
settlement for her service
fees, she says the ceo
responded that the flights
were not booked for Kreston
employees and that it
sounded like fraud.
Almost all outbound
sectors of the tickets had
already been used, Tebogo
explains. She contacted
SATC head office who
assisted in compiling
reports of the tickets,
which were sent out to the
various affected airlines.
She went into each booking
and cancelled all unflown
sectors, advising under
vendor remarks that she
suspected the transactions
to be fraudulent. Tebogo
also went to Rosebank
police station to report the
crime but said the officer
on duty refused to take a
statement and said only the
cardholder could report the
crime.
Tebogo has now been
notified by FNB that the
first two cardholder queries
relating to the transactions
have been received with
more expected to follow.
FNB has asked Tebogo
to provide copies of the
transaction CCCFs to avoid
transaction reversals but
she only has signed credit
card authorisations and
copies of the credit cards
on hand. It is expected that
the transaction reversals
received by the airlines
will be deducted from the
consortium’s BSP before
the debt, which is estimated
to amount to R1 million,
is ultimately passed on to
Tebogo.
Denise Kotze, acting
caretaker manager for SATC,
said the repercussions for
the consortium were as
yet unknown as they were
only beginning to receive
correspondence back from
banks and airlines. She
said this was the first time
an SATC agent had fallen
victim to fraud and said its
ticketing department had
developed a relationship
with Tebogo over the years
they had been ticketing for
her and, as a result, had
no reason to doubt that the
tickets were genuine at the
time of issuance.
Denise did stress that it
was absolutely essential for
consultants to obtain signed
CCCF forms for all their
credit card transactions to
avoid being held responsible
for reversals. She said SATC
had sent communications
to all its agents advising
that credit card ticketing
transactions would now
only be processed by the
ticketing department when
proof of a valid CCCF copy
for the transaction was
received. She added that,
when signing up a brandnew
corporate client, it was
a good idea for the agent
to double check with the
company that the person
was legitimate before
entering into ticketing
transactions on their behalf.
Otto de Vries, ceo of
Asata, warns that a frequent
sign of fraud is when
the person or company
requesting the booking is
based in a different country
to that from where the flights
originate. “In this specific
case, the person claimed to
be US-based and the flights
were originating from Lagos,
but tickets were booked in
South Africa. As soon as
you have too many variables
involved, one should become
suspicious.” Asata’s website
also features a page with
tips on how to avoid fraud,
including checking that
the card is valid on https://
www.bindb.com/bindatabase.html.
