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Mafia spending big on in-flight duty free

June 14, 2006

Singapore (dpa) - Organised crime groups are exploiting the security loopholes of in-flight shopping and running up bills with stolen or fake credit cards, a news report said Tuesday.

Fraudsters are well aware that card sales terminals on planes are not live or linked to the banks via a phone line like terminals on land, The Straits Times said.

In-flight transactions cannot be immediately verified with the bank or credit card company.

"There seems to be a syndicate that operates by travelling on short, busy flights making purchases with fraudulent cards," the newspaper quoted a stewardess as saying.

Airlines and banks do not always pursue such cases vigorously as they are constrained by the hassle of dealing with overseas law agencies.

However, a Singapore Airlines spokesman said the airline has security measures in place on board.

One measure used by airlines is a list of black-listed card numbers that onboard terminals will automatically reject. But while periodically updated, the list is unable to filter out all unauthorised purchases, cabin crews acknowledged.

Airlines typically have an on-board transaction limit of 600 Singapore dollars (379 US dollars) to 1,000 Singapore dollars (632 US dollars), the report said. Any bigger purchase must be verified by the in-flight attendant by satellite phone.

But some passengers use two or more cards to split the bill so that it will be within the limit, the paper said.