Easy For Fraudsters To Fool E-Ticket Kiosks
It would be really easy for someone to steal your credit card and buy and use an airplane ticket.
First they buy the ticket with your credit card information. Then they pick up the e-ticket from a kiosk just using your name to print it out. Then, when they're asked to present boarding pass and ID at all the security checkpoints, all they need is a fake ID with your name and their picture.
Now, it's pretty easy to dispute the charges as fraudulent, but you would think these kiosks would require more ID than just your first and last name and your destination city. — BEN POPKEN
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All the ones I have been to require you to swipe a card such as a driver's license or credit card. So you physically have to have a card that matches the name of the ticket. Fakes wouldn't work, I don't believe.
Popken put down the crack pipe - is it a slow day at Consumerist central got to make shit up as you go along.
While I don't think your scenario isn't possible its highly unlikely. From a terrorist perspective, why bring attention to yourself using stolen credit cards. From a theft perspective, this is right up there with using a fake credit card at a restaurant - only the truly foolish do it.
This is a dead end, because even a paper ticket would most likely just be refunded to the same account. Calling Africa on your cellphone is one thing, but flying somewhere trapped in an aluminum tube with secure areas before and after is a recipe for being caught. You don't hear about airline ticket scams anymore.
@Abusiveelusive: You can typically look up a reservation with the name and confirmation number if you don't have/don't want to swipe a card.
That said, a thief who buys something to be consumed at a specific time/place at a location crawling with law enforcement on a stolen credit card is just begging to be caught.
@ytsirklin:
Thank you for you insight into the crimminal mind. I suppose that you would know best, being an expert on all upon which you comment.
\Have read your previous posts in other threads
\\Consider you a worthless and vulgar troll
@Erskine: Well on the bright side at least you are reading my posts. Have a nice day. Are you Popken's alter ego?
Actually, it does happen.
Recently, someone stole my mother's credit card info in France and bought $2300 tickets to Switzerland.
Curiously, the budget hotel that we suspect is the source of the id theft also made my Mom give them a photocopy of her passport.
Whether the two events are related, je ne sais quoi.
@Erskine: You are very strange and angry.
As for fake ID you would need to get through security, is it really that easy to get a fake driver's license? I mean, this wouldn't be a run of the mill kind of fraud, I think.
@umonster: It wouldn't have to be a highly functional fake ID. Kids have been making 'em for decades to get into bars underage.
@Ben Popken: I am sorry to hear that. However, I stand by my original comment. This didn't happen in the US but overseas. And I find it highly unlikely that it would happen here. Additionally, while I don't think you would have this information, but did anyone actually try and use the airline tickets they purchased. A professional thief doesn't take the chance of flying on tickets purchased with a stolen credit card. Too many ways to get caught. Smart credit card thieves buy electronics, clothes, and other items that are easily disposed of on sites like Ebay.
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All the ones I have been to require you to swipe a card such as a driver's license or credit card. So you physically have to have a card that matches the name of the ticket. Fakes wouldn't work, I don't believe.
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USAirways in Philly has 75% of the gates and almost forces you to use automated check in and you do not have to swipe your card.
The observation in this thread is right on the money.
This doesn't MATTER...
As long as they steal your CREDIT card # (and not a debit card number), its not your money.
And fake ID is bad: risky, stupid, and unnecessary. Instead, print at home and do a second printing with the fraudster's actual name.
Guys, this isn't a security problem for anyone except the airlines and credit card companies.
@Ben Popken: True enough, but getting into bars is one thing (I used em myself for that), getting passed airline security is another. Can a fake ID really get someone through the security zone to the gate?
I've had friends who have had fake IDs that do the magnetic strip swipe for years. Just have to know the right people.
It would be much easier for the attacker to print a fake boarding pass with their actual name on it than to create a fake ID card. If you own an ink jet printer and can edit an image you're all set.
They could pass through security by showing their real identification and their fake boarding pass. Security personnel simply confirm that the name on your driver's license matches the name on your boarding pass--which you could have printed at home. They don't look up on a computer system the name on your boarding pass in the security line.
Effectively they are only confirming that you HAVE an ID, not your name or anything. This security hole has been documented for years, but the TSA continues its security theater.
(Also, this is a somewhat risky way to transfer your ticket to someone else for free.)
If I haven't articulated the issue well and it still doesn't make sense, these two articles have good descriptions:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/forge_your_o...
http://slate.com/id/2113157/
umonster: Trivia. Heck, I use my LBNL guest ID card all the time at the airport (it is a federal issued ID from a national laboratory, so it is perfectly valid for this application), but pretty much the rent-a-cops who do the ID check will accept anything short of "Federal Booby Inspector" about 70-80% of the time.
However, as I said, you don',t need to worry about this (credit card fraud protection is really good for consumers), and you don't need a fake ID if you are the attacker as you can just use "print at home" and do a second version where you edit the name.
@umonster: I watched the TSA pretty closely as they checked IDs. They're just using their eyes. As long as the fake looks real and the names match, I don't see how it would be a problem. I even saw a girl get in using a Social Security card and some letter, neither of which had a photo on it.
@umonster:
I'll accept the strange part, but I am not angry -- mearly irritated by the likes of ytsirklin. Read his replies to this and other threads and you will see why.
You don't need an ID to fly, you simply must submit to a secondary screening.
I'd venture to guess the people checking IDs at the airport do a less thorough job than most door people at a bar or club. I check IDs for a part time job at a local concert venue/bar, and I know we look at IDs in much greater depth than the people I see at the airport.
When I hand over my ID at the security screening line, they glance at it for about 5 seconds just to see if the name matches the name on the boarding pass. I never see them even look to see if it has a valid hologram, and half the time I don't even think they look at the picture.
2 points:
1) how hard would it be to use the fake ID, to get a paper ticket printed from an agent at the desk, almost same as the kiosk.
2) They have to make those kiosks as easy as they can so the mass of people can use it instead of an agent at the counter. (cost saving measure)