Airline ticket scam suspect on the run

• Allegedly sold non-existent fares to the Philippines

• Up to 50 complaints from scammed customers; police readying warrant

Ticket scam suspect Rodelion Malveda. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

UNION CITY, California – A former employee of a major San Francisco-based travel firm, who allegedly scammed customers traveling to the Philippines with bogus airline tickets, has gone into “deep hiding” as complaints continued to mount against him.

One by one, people who have fully or partially paid Rodelio “Delo” Malveda, formerly of Lucky Tours and Travel, for what turned out to be non-existent airplane tickets have come forward to file a formal complaint so they could either recover their money or claim their tickets.

Lucky Tours President Ruell Medina said the company continues to process the claims of customers upon presentation of payments made to Malveda.

“We have agreed with Union City police to gather all the complaints before Lucky Tours files a lawsuit that would lead to the issuance of an arrest warrant,” Medina told FilAm Star. “We already collected more than 50 complaints, but we expect more in the days ahead.”

Medina reiterated his call made last week for those who believe they have been victimized by Malveda to go to Lucky Tours’ Union City branch to fill out the claim form, which will be treated as a complaint and evidence against him.

Malveda was an 18-year veteran with Lucky Tours, who managed its branch office in the Bay Area city of Union City. 

“The police has already assigned a case number (140509018) so that once we file the consolidated complaint, with Lucky Tours as lead complainant, the justice system will begin pursuing Malveda in earnest,” Medina said.

Bogus tickets

The scam first came to light early this month when the Lucky Tours’ main office in San Francisco received a call from two unrelated customers, who said they bought their tickets from Malveda. They said they called the airline to confirm their flight but were told their names were not in the system. Meaning, what Malveda issued them might have been no more than a flight schedule that anyone could pull from the airline’s website, not a confirmed airline system-generated e-ticket.

The red flag raised by the complaining customers prompted company officials to conduct a complete audit of the ticket sales of Lucky Tours-Union City in the presence of Malveda. There, they discovered that since January, if not earlier, Malveda had been deceiving both his employer and customers.

“Based on our findings and customers’ complaints,” Medina told FilAm Star, “he issued bogus tickets after collecting payment, which of course, he did not input into the system, let alone remit to the company. He also offered a lay-away plan, in which customers made small regular payments toward the full price of a ticket. There were also one-way tickets issued. Some paid tickets were issued just a day or two before the flight.”

Medina also confirmed that Malveda acted alone in operating the alleged scam; he had no accomplice within or outside of Lucky Tours or any of its affiliates.

Ripping off friends

What Malveda apparently left behind when he went into hiding was a slew of people and co-workers who called him a friend, someone with whom they entrusted their hard-earned money in personal transactions and dealings.

“I know of two other people from an affiliate firm besides myself who had been making payments to Malveda as agent or broker of properties in the Philippines,” said an employee who requested anonymity.

“With him gone, what happens to our money? And can we file a claim on the property we supposedly bought? I’m sure he did not remit those payments to the real estate company in the Philippines.”

Another employee lamented the fact that Malveda was the keeper of the monies he and several other co-employees pooled together and took turns to withdraw every month. He rued: “When this scandal broke and he ran away, it was a co-employee’s turn to withdraw the money at the time that he was in Manila and needed it very badly for his family.”

Lessons learned

Asked why Lucky Tours management was not able to uncover the scam much earlier, Medina said the company’s system, like that of other travel firms, takes only those transactions that are actually entered into it. The absence of any complaining customer prevented the detection of the caper early on, he added.

“It’s obvious that Mr. Malveda was revolving the cash payments of trusting customers,” she said. “He would use the money of recent customers so he could make good the ticket sale to those who had purchased earlier — until he probably ran out of money to go around with and buy tickets that were due.”

According to Medina, bogus ticketing has always been the bane of the travel industry everywhere. Spurious dealings by a travel firm staff are left undetected by management, unless and until the customer comes forward with a complaint and proof of payment.

Following news that FilAm Star broke in October 2012 about an air ticket scam out of the Los Angeles Area that victimized thousands of Filipinos in California, including the Bay Area, Lucky Tours issued an advisory, warning the public against paying for non-existing tickets.

“No ticket, no payment,” said the advisory, referring to the business dictum through which Lucky Tours, according to the official, has become one of the Bay Area’s most trusted travel firms since 1973.

The advisory reads: “Whether a ticket is paid in cash, check, or credit card, a confirmed ticket from the airline, which the travel agent pulls off the computer and prints, will be handed out to the passenger in exchange for the payment – on the spot.

“There is no such thing as ‘deposit,’ ‘downpayment,’ ‘lay-away plan,’ or ‘pre-departure delivery’ in the air ticketing business, unless especially arranged between the travel office and the passenger under exceptional and very rare circumstances.

“Verbal assurances that tickets would be available a few days before the scheduled departure date, therefore, are a big red flag. In some cases, the ticket – after perhaps the vendor has collected enough money from recent customers — is delivered to the passenger on departure day itself, right at the airport.”

According to Medina, customers who are unable to pay at the time of the booking – meaning, there’s an available seat at their preferred departure and return dates but they don’t have yet the money — are given seven calendar days within which to make the full payment.

In some instances, she said, a customer makes a cash deposit and for which the agent issues an official company receipt, with the express agreement that if he or she fails to fully pay for the booking within the seven-day window, the airline’s system itself will automatically cancel it.

“The passenger needs to be rebooked if the original booking is no longer available,” the official said to FilAm Star. “If the passenger changes travel plans or decides not to fly anymore, the agent returns the deposit to the last cent. But within the seven-day period, the passenger’s booking is recorded in the airline’s system as confirmed.”

“Once full payment is made, the ticket is issued on the spot without delay,” Medina said.