A member of FlyerTalk was granted a conditional discharge by a judge in the Provincial Court of British Columbia in Richmond on Wednesday, December 20, 2017; and was ordered in a decision to pay Air Canada a total of $36,551.27 in restitution after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining transportation from the airline back in 2013.
FlyerTalk Member Ordered to Pay Air Canada $36,551.27 in Restitution After Pleading Guilty to Scam
Marc Anthony Tacchi — who is 42 years old and is currently employed as a pilot for the subsidiary of Cathay Pacific Airlines known as Cathay Dragon — was allegedly responsible for booking $35,996.95 worth of free flights using a redemption code from a mystery shopping program and collected $554.33 in frequent flier miles as a result, which is a violation of Section 393(3) of the Criminal Code of Canada.
According to this official document of the citation of Regina v. Marc Anthony Tacchi
In 2012 and 2013, a company named Sensors Quality Management Inc. (“SQM”) operated a ‘mystery shopper’ quality control program through which they provided clients with evaluations of their goods and services from anonymous shoppers. SQM would offer selected shoppers with the opportunity to obtain partial or full refunds of the amounts paid for these services and goods in exchange for a completed written evaluation of the goods or services received.
One of SQM’s clients was Air Canada. Air Canada provided SQM with promotional codes to be used for the ‘mystery shopper’ program. These codes were not to be provided to the ‘mystery shoppers’. The mystery shoppers would book their flights through SQM and provide payment to SQM for the tickets. SQM would provide the mystery shopper with an itinerary along with other documents including a flight agreement obligating the mystery shopper to complete and return an evaluation. Upon receipt of full payment for the tickets and the completed flight agreement, SQM would obtain flight tickets from Air Canada for the mystery shopper using the promotion codes they had been supplied. The tickets would then be sent directly to the mystery shopper by Air Canada. Upon receipt of the mystery shopper’s completed evaluation form, SQM would refund 50% of the fare paid for the flight.
The Accused was able to obtain one of Air Canada’s promotion codes from Mr. Hunt who resided in Ontario. Mr. Hunt was described as an ‘SQM insider’. Instead of going through SQM, the Accused obtained first class air tickets by providing the promotion code he had obtained from Mr. Hunt directly to Air Canada. He was able to do this without making any payment to SQM, without entering into a flight agreement and without completing and returning any evaluation.
According to the court document, Tacchi not only reportedly used the free code to obtain a seat in the first class cabin on some flights; but also to help his friends book flights — and in one case, allegedly charged a friend identified as Mr. Howard $400.00 to do so.
Between Monday, March 18, 2013 and Monday, July 29, 2013, Tacchi fraudulently used the promotion code he had obtained to book four trips for himself and his family involving some 13 individual flight legs — the total value of which was $22,739.82. The total value of all the flights fraudulently obtained was $35,996.95. Tacchi was also able to obtain frequent flier loyalty program miles as a result of these fraudulently obtained flights, the total value of which is $554.33. The total loss claimed by Air Canada — as a result of flights fraudulently obtained by Tacchi — is $36,551.27.
In addition to the payment of restitution, Tacchi — who is known as FlyerTalk member mtacchi and is a citizen of Canada who is a permanent resident of Hong Kong — was also ordered by the judge to abide by probational conditions for six months and perform 20 hours of community service. He fortunately avoided what could have been a harsher sentence whose maximum is 14 years of incarceration.
The current status of mtacchi on FlyerTalk is that his posting privileges have been suspended; and he has not posted on FlyerTalk in almost seven years.
Summary
I personally have never met Marc Tacchi nor recall communicating with him through FlyerTalk; but his alleged actions are an example of attempting to “game” the system beyond what is acceptable — to the point of approaching criminal status.
This discussion posted on FlyerTalk is where I first found out about this case, which appears to be a classic example of greed on the part of a frequent traveler; and it is certainly not the first time this has occurred — or the last time, I suspect.
Maximizing the benefits within the terms and conditions of a frequent travel loyalty program is one thing; but devising a way to benefit from one through fraudulent methods is inexcusable and unacceptable — and can result in casting a negative pall amongst those of us in the frequent travel community who participate in those programs within their terms and conditions.
Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
