4 ms·

I guess the part where she used 20 fake identities to hide her tracks is illegal?

huffmsa 6y ago
Yeah, sounds like she broke a few laws RE identity and falsifying information about some of the cancellations. Nothing wrong about finding an informational edge over the insurance companies.
- nvr219 6y ago
  She got greedy!
lucianbr 6y ago
Ok, fake identities are illegal. But why would she need to hide her tracks? Was there something else illegal in the first place, that would necessitate her using fake identities to hide? What?
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  Well, if I were to do something like this one of the first assumptions I would make is if I use the same identity for each refund they will soon catch on that I have gotten a lot of refunds and shut me down.
- WJW 6y ago
  You can only get one insurance policy per flight per identity and the maximum profit per policy is limited. So to increase profits you can get more identities and then get more insurance. Kinda how some people have dozens of dropbox accounts to take advantage of the free storage every account gets.
  - webmaven 6y ago
    > Kinda how some people have dozens of dropbox accounts to take advantage of the free storage every account gets. That's only part of the story (and trying to manage storage across multiple Dropbox accounts is a pain). The real benefit would be the expanded free storage your primary account gets as a referral incentive.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Have you considered that taking out insurance for a flight you don't intend to take, with the intent to defraud the insurance company, might be illegal?
  - Ajedi32 6y ago
    That's a circular argument. Fraud is illegal by definition. The question is: what is it that makes this fraud? (Besides the fake identities.) Was there something in the contract requiring clients to only take out policies on airline tickets they actually intended to use to travel? (The article suggests there wasn't prior to this incident.)
joshvm 6y ago
Double insurance isn't necessarily illegal on its own, but some insurance companies will say it's a policy violation to do it. Claiming is another matter. Double dipping car insurance is definitely illegal in the US. That said, in principle it's analogous to placing two bets from different bookies. Most of the time if you double insured, you'd just lose twice as much money. You'd probably need to look into exactly what constitutes insurance fraud. In this case it's probably fine, because the event actually happened and she was entitled to claim. The identity fraud bit is really the problem here though.
aaron695 6y ago
She didn't use fake identities, she booked on the behalf of family and friends. The insurance also didn't require the person to have checked in.

Yeah, sounds like she broke a few laws RE identity and falsifying information about some of the cancellations. Nothing wrong about finding an informational edge over the insurance companies.

nvr219 6y ago
She got greedy!

lucianbr 6y ago

Ok, fake identities are illegal. But why would she need to hide her tracks? Was there something else illegal in the first place, that would necessitate her using fake identities to hide? What?

bryanrasmussen 6y ago
Well, if I were to do something like this one of the first assumptions I would make is if I use the same identity for each refund they will soon catch on that I have gotten a lot of refunds and shut me down.
WJW 6y ago
You can only get one insurance policy per flight per identity and the maximum profit per policy is limited. So to increase profits you can get more identities and then get more insurance. Kinda how some people have dozens of dropbox accounts to take advantage of the free storage every account gets.
- webmaven 6y ago
  > Kinda how some people have dozens of dropbox accounts to take advantage of the free storage every account gets. That's only part of the story (and trying to manage storage across multiple Dropbox accounts is a pain). The real benefit would be the expanded free storage your primary account gets as a referral incentive.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Have you considered that taking out insurance for a flight you don't intend to take, with the intent to defraud the insurance company, might be illegal?
- Ajedi32 6y ago
  That's a circular argument. Fraud is illegal by definition. The question is: what is it that makes this fraud? (Besides the fake identities.) Was there something in the contract requiring clients to only take out policies on airline tickets they actually intended to use to travel? (The article suggests there wasn't prior to this incident.)

joshvm 6y ago

Double insurance isn't necessarily illegal on its own, but some insurance companies will say it's a policy violation to do it. Claiming is another matter. Double dipping car insurance is definitely illegal in the US. That said, in principle it's analogous to placing two bets from different bookies. Most of the time if you double insured, you'd just lose twice as much money. You'd probably need to look into exactly what constitutes insurance fraud. In this case it's probably fine, because the event actually happened and she was entitled to claim. The identity fraud bit is really the problem here though.

aaron695 6y ago

She didn't use fake identities, she booked on the behalf of family and friends. The insurance also didn't require the person to have checked in.