Airline disasters
Advance fee fraud
It is hard enough to deal with the loss of family and friends in a horrific accident, let alone knowing that criminal gangs are now using your beloved’s name to scam money off people.
That is the situation for family and friends of people who lost their lives in airline disasters.
A prime example is the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash. The airplane was en route from Mexico to San Francisco and Seattle when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angles. All 88 people on board were killed.
Scammers have accessed the names and background information of the passengers and crew from press reports and are now using this in an advance fee fraud.
The scammers often include a link to the news website to add authenticity to their tale.
They use the details to tell a story about how one passenger (they will use a name from the list) has millions of dollars in a bank account and no relative to claim it.
Time is running out and unless somebody claims the money, it will go back into a government’s consolidated revenue.
However the scammer will claim that they have information you can use to claim the money as the victim’s next of kin. They will split the proceeds with you. The scammers often claim they are a barrister or a bank employee.
If you respond, they will ask you to send money to help with the transfer of money. The requests start with small amounts of money and continue to grow. You will never see your money again let alone the promised millions.
These are particularly distasteful scams. Other airline crashes the scammers are using to perpetrate this advance fee fraud are:
- Korean Air Flight 801 in 1997
- Bellview Airlines Flight 210 in 2005
- Concorde Air France Flight AF4590 in 2000
- EgyptAir Flight 990 in 1999
But the scammers will use any tragedy to make money including car crashes, wars and natural disasters. They will pretend to be the daughters, sons and wives of these people needing your help to get money out of the country.
Scams of a similar type include:
For more scams of this type and others, visit the full list of scams by type page.
