Woman makes 3 million yuan in flight delay insurance scam

Business & Technology

Nanjing woman uses airlines own shortcomings against them to pocket $420,000 over five years.

On June 9, a Nanjing woman was arrested for an insurance scam that she has been operating since 2015. A person identified as Ms. Lว ๆŽ, who used to work in the flight industry, has amassed over 3 million yuan ($420,000) in flight-delay insurance by strategically booking tickets on flights she predicted would be held up.

Li watched flight schedules for delay patterns and used 20 of her friendsโ€™ and family membersโ€™ passport numbers to purchase multiple seats with flight-delay insurance on over 900 flights. Heated debate has broken out on the internet over the legality of Liโ€™s scam, with some claiming she cleverly took advantage of an ill-designed system, and others arguing she committed fraud by using fake identities and purchasing tickets for flights she never intended to take.

Everyone is astounded that her scam went undetected for over five years. Although Li was charged, no legal verdict has been reached.

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