Maybe it was the Bloody Mary that got Jean Shanley into trouble on a recent flight from Louisville to Las Vegas.
She paid for the $5
beverage with her American Express card and then slipped the card back
into her pocketbook, where it stayed for the rest of her vacation. When
she returned home, Shanley, a sales associate for a department store in
Burlington, Ky., found $1,300 in fraudulent charges on the card — and
she suspects that Southwest Airlines is responsible for the security
breach.
Travelers are easy prey for “carders,” who take illegal
credit card impressions in a crime called cloning or skimming. Airline
passengers such as Shanley may feel extra vulnerable, because on a
plane, plastic is often the only payment option for beverages, meals or
duty-free items. (Airlines euphemistically call it a “cashless
environment.”)
Apart from the timing of the charges, several
other clues point to Southwest as the responsible party. First, Shanley
says, the flight attendant took 15 minutes to return her card; and
second, she’d never had a fraudulent credit card charge until she made
the in-flight purchase. “I think it’s strange that the charges showed up
two days after that flight, and I have never had a problem before,” she
says.
Southwest says it isn’t responsible. “Cardholders tend to
focus on the last known legitimate charge as being the point of
compromise,” airline spokeswoman Linda Rutherford says. “However, our
security folks advise us that it could be any number of merchants where
the card was used prior to the Southwest flight.” She says Southwest has
“no reason” to suspect the crew on Shanley’s flight but agreed to
forward her complaint to management “for their review.”
Shanley’s credit card company reversed the bogus charges.
But
Shanley’s problem raises two bigger questions for air travelers who
want to buy something on board: Is it safe? And is there a way to
protect your card?
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com
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