The Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria
Police on Monday advised air travellers against using credit cards for the
purchase of air tickets to avoid being defrauded.
The Commissioner of
Police in charge of the unit, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, gave the advice in an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Lamorde said some air
passengers were defrauded of N2.3 million by suspected fraudsters who used
stolen credit cards for such transactions.
According to him, some
passengers were offloaded from a commercial flight because stolen credit cards
were used in buying their tickets.
“The passengers were
directed to appear at the American Embassy for interrogation to explain how
they bought the tickets.
“At the Embassy, it was
discovered they paid a total sum of N2.3 million to one of the suspects who
operates a travel agency at Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos State.
“There is no way they
will know that the agent will pay for their tickets using credit cards because
most of them paid for tickets through cash or money transfer,’’ Lamorde said.
The police chief said
the first suspect, (name withheld), who partnered with the second suspect (name
withheld), claimed he had been running a travel agency in Ibadan for over five
years.
He said that in
December 2016, the same travel agency defrauded a family of 11 of huge sums of
money through air tickets.
“After investigation,
it was discovered that the travel agencies were not certified by the
International Air Transport Association (AITA),’’ he said.
Lamorde said credit
cards thieves are usually targeting hospitality and aviation industry to spend
the money.
“If you use credit card
to purchase tickets, you are expected to come along with the credit card on the
day you are about to board to make it legitimate,” the police chief said.
Daily Trust / NAN
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