How one man scammed his way onto 120 FREE flights over six years by posing as a flight attendant
Echoing Frank Abagnale Jr's escapades in the 1960s - when the then teenager famously posed as a Pan Am pilot and jetted around the world - Tiron Alexander managed to evade capture for six years.
On June 5th, a federal jury in Florida convicted the former airline employee of entering into a secure area of an airport by false pretenses and wire fraud.
From 2018 to 2024, the Florida-based 35-year-old accessed flights on an airline carrier's website that were reserved for cabin crew and pilots.
Posing as a flight attendant, Alexander managed to board 34 flights with the carrier without detection, after being able to enter in cabin crew badge number details into the airline's flight application website.
A statement on the website of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida detailed his deception.
It read: 'Alexander claimed through the airline carrier's website application process - a process that required an applicant to select whether they were a pilot or flight attendant and provide their employer, date of hire, and badge number information - that he worked for seven different airlines and had approximately 30 different badge numbers and dates of hire.'
Further evidence found that he had taken a similar approach with three other airlines, with prosecutors believing the amount of flights he boarded by pretending to be a working flight attendant was around 120.
After an investigation by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Alexander was arrested and convicted last month.
The fraudster is scheduled to be sentenced on August 25th.
Alexander had, according to the evidence submitted in court, worked for Delta for two years from 2010 to 2012 as a global ticketing support representative.
He was also familiar with the role of flight attendant, having spent a year working for Atlantic Southeast Airlines from 2013 to 2014, while another stint in the skies saw him employed as cabin crew for US regional airline Republic Airways.
Trial evidence also showed Alexander had posed as a flight attendant on three other airlines, and he had ultimately booked more than 120 free flights by claiming he was a flight attendant, according to the announcement.
According to information published by Fortune, it's thought the frauds mostly took place from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The publication reports that screenshots suggest he was flying on Spirit Airlines, a Florida-based flyer.
Alexander's deception appears straight out of the Frank W. Abagnale Jr. handbook, which inspired the 1980 book, 2002 blockbuster movie - starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and 2011 Broadway musical.
Abagnale was a clever teen who posed as a Pan Am pilot to travel the world in the 1960s; he raked in $2.5 million passing off bad cheques – all while evading the FBI and Interpol.
Once one of the most formidable forgers, Mr Abagnale has since changed his ways and now advises governments and businesses on cybersecurity, identity theft, and scams.
Described as the 'ultimate conman' for managing to evade the FBI for years, last year he warned that AI will create a 'tsunami' of scammers just like him.
'Anything today can be replicated, duplicated, counterfeited, deep-faked, or AI-manipulated,' he said, adding: 'Technology breeds crime. It always has and always will.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Man charged with killing a top Minnesota House Democrat is expected to plead not guilty
The man charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, is expected to plead not guilty when he's arraigned in federal court on Thursday, his attorney said. Vance Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, was indicted July 15 on six counts of murder, stalking and firearms violations. The murder charges could carry the federal death penalty, though prosecutors say that decision is several months away. As they announced the indictment, prosecutors released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the June 14 shootings of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. However, the letter doesn't make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who survived. Boelter's federal defender, Manny Atwal, said at the time that the weighty charges did not come as a surprise, but she has not commented on the substance of the allegations or any defense strategies. The hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster will also serve as a case management conference. She plans to issue a revised schedule with deadlines afterward, potentially including a trial date. Prosecutors have moved to designate the proceedings as a 'complex case' so that standard speedy trial requirements won't apply, saying both sides will need plenty of time to review the voluminous evidence. 'The investigation of this case arose out of the largest manhunt in Minnesota's history," they wrote. "Accordingly, the discovery to be produced by the government will include a substantial amount of investigative material and reports from more than a dozen different law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.' They said the evidence will include potentially thousands of hours of video footage, tens of thousands of pages of responses to dozens of grand jury subpoenas, and data from numerous electronic devices seized during the investigation. Boelter's motivations remain murky. Friends have described him as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. Authorities said Boelter made long lists of politicians in Minnesota and other states — all or mostly Democrats. In a series of cryptic notes to The New York Times through his jail's electronic messaging service, Boelter suggested his actions were partly rooted in the Christian commandment to love one's neighbor. 'Because I love my neighbors prior to June 14th I conducted a 2 year long undercover investigation,' he wrote. In messages published earlier by the New York Post, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for President Donald Trump, but he declined to elaborate. 'There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism,' the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, told reporters last month. He also reiterated that prosecutors consider Hortman's killing a 'political assassination.' Prosecutors say Boelter was disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car early June 14 when he went to the Hoffmans' home in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He shot the senator nine times, and his wife eight times, officials said. Boelter later went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them, authorities said. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Boelter surrendered the next night.
Times
28 minutes ago
- Times
How not to get scammed — a guide for idiots (that's all of us)
'G ullible.' 'Naïve.' 'Vulnerable.' Even 'stupid'. Too often these are the words used to describe victims of fraud. The fact is that anyone — and I mean anyone — can be caught out by a scam. And if you're reading this thinking, 'Not me, I'm way too smart,' then I hate to be the one to tell you, but you're wrong. Fraud works because fraudsters know what makes us tick. By exploiting our most basic human emotions, whether that be fear, excitement, greed or even love, scammers can empty the bank accounts of the most savvy among us. I know of CEOs, lawyers, doctors, detectives — even one head of fraud at a bank — who have been the victim of a fraudster. The current fraud landscape is pretty bleak. The National Crime Agency estimates that fraud accounts for over 40 per cent of crime in England and Wales. The situation takes on an even more dismal hue when you learn that only 1 per cent of police resources are dedicated to dealing with fraud. The problem is huge and it's very much on the rise.
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Harlow internet 'catfish' sentenced for dating app fraud
A woman who used fake identities on dating apps to swindle three men out of more than £11,000 has been sentenced. Kerry Gray, 37, of Harlow, Essex, targeted vulnerable men, telling them her parents had just died before she started asking them for Chelmsford Crown Court, she was given a two-year jail term, suspended for two-years, after previously admitting three counts of fraud by false Suki Dhadda told Gray: "Count yourself very lucky you have not been taken into custody today. I doubt next time you will be so lucky." Gray, who sobbed in the dock, matched with one man on Plenty of Fish and two on Bumble, giving false names, the court she defrauded £11,349 from the three on her first victim in 2022, the conversation quickly moved to WhatsApp and the court heard they were speaking daily. But after chatting to her for a few months, he was left £3,384 out of being arrested on 24 February 2024, she said: "I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry - I feel really bad now." But despite the arrest, Gray matched with her second victim in July 2024, telling him she was a lead nurse. She told him she had fallen victim to debit card fraud and lost access to her bank had asked him for £30 for petrol to take her nieces and nephews out but he was concerned that it would not be enough, so gave her £ court heard he was using his savings to meet her then she started to ask him for more relationship ended with the victim sending Gray a screenshot of his empty bank account to prove he had no money left.A victim impact statement was read out on his behalf, saying it had had a "significant impact on my life." "I feel like I am in a black hole and I need to get out of it and I am a shadow of who I am," it Gray was arrested in February over the second victim, it became obvious to police that there was a third had given him the false name of Hannah victim ended up taking out a loan to meet her he tried to end the relationship, she threatened to take her own life and also claimed her brother was being abusive to her. In a statement to police, the victim said he genuinely thought he was in a relationship with had transferred £6,626 to her in 119 court heard she was spending the money on gambling, takeaways, drugs and alcohol. 'Sad and difficult life' The judge told Gray: "You lured these men in and you started telling them a web of lies."Simeon Wallis, defending, said Gray had been living off universal court heard that at the time of the offences, she was living at her aunt's house and sleeping in a room with a number of children on a mattress on the Wallis said Gray had a "sad and difficult life" and was put in care at the age of had once been a care manager in a care home but chose to leave in 2023 due to her addictions to alcohol and said Gray was keen to repay the money, adding: "Gambling is not a good idea for her, but if she were to win a large sum tomorrow, that is the first thing she would do."The judge has also ordered Gray, who had no previous convictions, to pay back some of the money to each of the victims over the next two years. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
