Conned

I had a very strange experience back in Guatemala that I refrained from writing about until I had a better idea of what actually happened.

One day back in April, I had been trying to make a number of airplane reservations online. After two successful payments, my Visa company got spooked and put a hold on my card, so I was unable to finish the rest of them. I sent an email to my issuing bank and gave up for the day.

I went to a local bar to return my friend's laptop that I had borrowed. She and some other friends were there and were talking to a fellow I hadn't met. I gave the folks at the table my sob story about the airline flights and credit card problems.

Coincidentally, the new fellow, named Darius, had an airline story to tell as well. He said that he flies around the world a lot for work and has accumulated over two million frequent flier miles that will soon be expiring. He said he couldn't possibly use them all before they expire, so his intention was to give them away to anyone that wants to fly somewhere. He said he didn't want anything in return. He just didn't want to see them go to waste especially if they could benefit others.

The something-for-nothing red flag went up in my head. I am quite a skeptical sort, so although I wanted to believe he was for real, I was definitely crinkling my nose about it. I had plans that night so I couldn't stay and chat about it, but he suggested we meet up the next day and he could hook me up.

That night, some of us discussed what could be up with this guy. We smelled a scam, but the guy didn't seem to want anything. He said that he would purchase the tickets for us, so I thought maybe he is collecting private info like passport numbers. Who knows. But at the same time, someone was offering me a free flight, so I planned to follow along with it until he requested something I wasn't comfortable with. Then I would drop out.

The next day, I opened a One World frequent flier account through American Airlines since he mentioned his miles were with that group. I figured I would ask him to transfer some miles to me online rather than buying a ticket and see what he says. I also happened to have a friend who was out of money and desperately needed to return to the States, so I let her know when I was meeting him so she could potentially benefit.

I met him at Zoola, a pleasant restaurant and hangout spot, operated and frequented by Israelis. He said that he had just finished arranging for a ticket for another friend of ours and to just let him know where and when I wanted to go and he would arrange it. His manner made it seem just so easy and plausible. I still wasn't sure about the guy. But I felt more comfortable about the situation. He said he didn't want any personal information. Only a first and last name to list as the passenger name. He seemed concerned that somehow having personal information would be a bad idea for him and the people he was helping.

I asked about transferring miles and he said it was a big hassle to do because the miles were all tied up with his company, a big New York investment company. He said that he was very good with math and that's why he had this important seeming job. His story made a lot of sense. He said that he didn't know his flier miles belonged to him and had been accruing them for years. He had just become aware of this huge balance of points when someone from the company contacted him to let him know many of them would expire soon. He said he was having trouble giving them away because people were creeped out by the idea of taking something so valuable from him. There must be a catch. I decided to keep playing along.

The friend I brought along, however, seemed to get spooked and decided not to go with us to the Internet Cafe to purchase the ticket. He seemed really confused about it and annoyed that he had to try so hard to give stuff away.

Before we left Zoola, a group of Israeli travelers began to give Darius a hard time. He wore a star of David as a necklace. And I suppose when he didn't speak any Hebrew, they naturally asked him where he was from. He said he was from Beiruit, born to an Arab father and a Jewish mother. The Israelis would not let this claim stand. They could not fathom this and continued to pummel him with questions about his upbringing. After awhile it became somewhat heated and he got frustrated so we left.

When we got to the Internet place, he brought up some airline screens where he listed out ticket possibilities for me to get from San Francisco to Frankfurt and back. He said the points he had were only good for first class, so like it or not, I would have to fly first class. Shame.

We picked a set of flights which totaled about $7800 retail. He said he was sending the info to the company travel agent and that I should get a confirmation. He said it sometimes takes a few minutes and sometimes takes a couple of days. I gave him my email address although he didn't seem to want it, so that this person could forward the confirmation directly to me.

That was that.

At this point, I still wasn't convinced. I also didn't feel super comfortable with the idea of this guy having any type of change or cancellation control over my trip to Europe. But at this point, he still has not asked me for a thing. He is seeming more and more legit all the time. So I am pretty happy now, hoping to soon get a confirmation for a free first class flight to Germany.

He hung out with my group of friends that night and continued to offer these tickets. He also made some other strange claims though. He said he could count cards. No doubt part of his math genius tool set. He claimed he could keep track of six decks of cards during black jack and would play folks at the bar. It is a tough claim to verify since counting cards only gives you a slight advantage. You still lose sometimes. But ok. He can count cards. Great.

He didn't play for money. He didn't ask anyone for anything. In fact, he bought a couple rounds of drinks as I remember.

One observation my Israeli friend made was that, for a man with such a well paid job, his star of David necklace was obviously cheap. She thought that was strange.

So, as you might imagine, I was eager to check my email to see about a confirmation of the flight. He had said he spoke with the travel agent and everything was a go. But each time I checked, no confirmation.

A couple of days passed. I hadn't seen him around town. Neither had others.

He had arranged for three different people in town. After all the offering he was doing, only three of us followed through with him. One of the others actually had a phone number for him and called him up. He answered and said his travel agent had called and was concerned with all of the different names he was buying tickets for, but that he explained and everything was fine again. Just be patient.

The other person was a girl who by now was pretty creeped out by the guy. He had been hitting on her pretty relentlessly even though she told him she had a boyfriend in the next town. A true fact. But he continued to pester her with phone calls and visits. Nothing too outrageous though.

After three days or so, I was pretty well convinced that I would never receive a confirmation. We could not for the life of us, however, figure out why he did this. We had some theories: For attention, compulsive liar, maybe a gift that might be cashed in later for some kind of favor, or just enjoys messing with people's heads.

He did borrow money from one person that probably was never returned. But it was not very much. Not enough to warrant all of the energy required to put so many people on.

My main problem at this point was: I need a ticket to Europe. If I buy a ticket now and the confirmation actually shows up, I will have wasted my money. But the longer I wait, the more expensive the ticket may get. After about five or six days, I was satisfied and purchased my ticket.

We all talked about it for days, just boggled at who this guy was and why he did this. I resigned myself to the fact that I would never find out any more about the guy.

But then I did.

Last week, a couple of folks from San Pedro emailed me to announce that at least some of the mystery was solved.

Darius was not his real name. His real name is Simon Gann and he is a true blue con man. He also has an identical twin brother named Jordan who was just sentenced to prison for his cons. Simon is wanted in Massachusetts and several other authorities are investigating him.

As to what his motives or intentions were with this frequent flier deal.... I still don't really know. The "con" in con man is short for confidence. Con men build confidence and trust in their victims before abusing that trust later on somehow, usually leaving the victim lighter in the wallet. It is possible the behaviour is just compulsive. He can't stop lying and making up stories. Or maybe there really was more in store for us. I would like to think that I would have been smart enough to pull away from him if his story started to change. But who knows? These guys are pros... and I am just trusting, albeit skeptical, soul.