[DUPED: Madam Chen (with her son) said that the travel agency's employee offered to deliver the tickets to her personally. Right: Fake ticket. TNP PICTURES: NG XI JIE]
by Amanda Yong
SHE bought a pair of air tickets from a travel agency for $824.
But when Madam Chen, 41, went to the airport with her 7-year-old son and suitcases in tow, she realised that she had been duped.
The pair of SilkAir e-tickets she had been given were fake.
The airline did not even have any flights to Chongqing, China, on that day.
Madam Chen, a study mama from China, has made a police report against the travel agency employee who sold her the tickets.
The travel agency, too, has lodged a police report against the employee, whom it said it has fired.
A police spokesman said that a man in his 30s has been arrested for criminal breach of trust.
Investigations are ongoing.
Said Madam Chen in Mandarin: 'It was only when I was at the airport that I realised that I had been sold fake tickets. I couldn't even find my flight number under the flight listings. The staff at the check-in counter also told me there was no such flight that day.'
She said she bought the tickets from a travel agency in Sengkang on 23 May.
The Chongqing native was planning to take her son, a Primary One student, back home during the June school holidays.
The travel agency employee who sold her the tickets gave her an invoice, which she showed to The New Paper. It had the travel agency's letterhead on it.
He also gave her a one-page print-out of her travel details, including the flight numbers and departure dates and times.
In return, she handed him $824 in cash - the full payment for the two return tickets.
'He told me he couldn't issue the tickets on the spot because it was a Saturday and that it would only be ready on Monday (25 May),' she said.
She agreed to collect the tickets from him at the travel agency on 25 May. But on that day, the man called and said he would personally deliver the tickets to her flat as the travel agency had closed its Sengkang branch.
When he turned up at her flat later that day to hand her the air tickets, she accepted them without any question.
'They (the tickets) looked legitimate, and because I can't read English, I only checked to make sure that the destination and dates were correct,' she said.
She showed the e-tickets to The New Paper. At first glance, they appeared legitimate, and included details like the passenger's name, flight details and even a booking reference number.
But the ticket numbers for both Madam Chen and her son were the same.
Each passenger should have a unique ticket number.
Strangely too, the e-tickets bore the name and address of a different travel agency.
On 8 Jun, the day before Madam Chen was scheduled to depart, the employee called her and claimed that her flight was cancelled as Chongqing had been struck by the Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic.
'He gave me two options - either to cancel my tickets and get a full refund and $300 as compensation, or change my departure date,' said Madam Chen.
Unknown to her, the employee had already been sacked by the agency.
Madam Chen then called her relatives in Chongqing to ask if there were H1N1 cases in the city.
Although they said there were none, she decided to change the departure date to 12 Jun. On 11 Jun, the man turned up at her flat again and passed her a pair of tickets with the new departure date.
But a few hours later, he called and yet again claimed that her flight had been cancelled due to H1N1 cases in Chongqing. He offered her the option of cancelling the air tickets or changing the departure date.
When she called her family again they said there was no such outbreak there.
She decided to go ahead with her travel plans.
Said Madam Chen: 'When I got to the airport, the staff said they didn't have flights to Chongqing on that day, a Friday. They told me that Chongqing flights were on Wednesdays and Saturdays.'
Contacted employee
She contacted the employee on his handphone over the next few days, and he told her that he would give her a refund.
But that didn't happen.
On 15 Jun, Madam Chen went to the travel agency. She wanted either new air tickets or her money back.
She said: 'The owner said he knew nothing about it and that he didn't receive any money from the employee. He said the employee had been sacked.'
She then decided to make a police report.
When contacted, the travel agency's boss, who wished to be known only as Mr Goh, said he only found out about the fake air tickets when Madam Chen turned up at his office on 15 Jun.
He said he saw the invoice given to Madam Chen, but the company had no records of such a sale.
He said: 'The invoice is fake. The letterhead is correct but the format is different. I offered to give her free air tickets and she said she would consider it.'
The owner also said that after the employee was sacked, two other customers had gone to the travel agency saying that they had paid for their tickets but had yet to receive them.
Both customers had been served by the same man.
But, unlike Madam Chen, they had been given original invoices issued by the agency. Mr Goh said that the employee had collected payment from them but had not handed the money over to the agency.
He added that he has issued them the air tickets they had paid for.
When contacted, a SilkAir spokesman said there were no flight cancellations or frequency reductions for its flights to Chongqing during the period of 8 to 12 Jun.
Said the spokesman: 'Our flights between Singapore and Chongqing are on Wednesdays and Saturdays only. We have stopped our operations on Tuesdays and Fridays since February this year.'
HOW TO SPOT A FAKE
LOGO ON TOP:
A real SilkAir e-ticket will have the company's logo at the top of the receipt
TOP LEFT CORNER:
Look out for the e-ticket's issue date and place; the travel agency's IATA (International Air Transport Association) code; country of issue and travel agency's name, if booked through an agency
TICKET NUMBER AND BOOKING REFERENCE:
Every e-ticket has a 13-digit ticket number and a six-digit alpha-numeric booking reference. These are used by SilkAir's reservation, ticketing and customer service staff to locate reservation records and electronic tickets We show what a real SilkAir e-ticket looks like
BOTTOM LINE:
When in doubt, call the airline and check on your purchase.
