An idea regarding Air NZ and Airpoints

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magpie1862

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#178943 20-Aug-2015 05:36

Just had a sneaky idea, and am wondering if it is too good to be true.

Step 1) You put a largeish amount of money on your OneSmart that gives you airpoints for transactions.
Step 2) You top up a betting account with the OneSmart (let's say Bet365 for instance)
Step 3) Once the money is in your betting account you refund the money to a different card. This might be unnecessary but OneSmart might see what you're doing otherwise
Step 4) The initial large transaction should give you a s***load of airpoints which if large enough could give you a free flight to pretty much anywhere depending on how big the transaction was.
Step 5) Repeat and if successful you'll never have to pay for a flight again in theory.

Do you reckon this would work? The only obstacle I see is if Air NZ is ahead of us and block airpoints on this type of transaction. Also there are questions on whether the betting site will let you immediately deposit and withdraw the money but Bet365 seems OK from my experience.

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#1370646 20-Aug-2015 06:22

When (not if) they work out what you're doing, you'll lose all your airpoints regardless of where they came from, probably lose the money on the card, and deal with their lawyers.

If you're really lucky, you'll go to jail for fraud or embezzlement.

nathan

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#1370649 20-Aug-2015 06:37

there will be surely be some Ts & Cs against this

kiwitrc

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#1370650 20-Aug-2015 06:40

You wont know unless you give it a whirl :)

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#1370651 20-Aug-2015 06:52

You can do it with mylotto and get the money paid out directly back to your bank account. Like a cash advance with credit card rewards and interest free. They do limit you to $150 from memory so you're not going to get rich by any means

nakedmolerat

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#1370652 20-Aug-2015 07:01

Sometimes it is just better to keep this type of thoughts to yourself.

andrewNZ

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#1370654 20-Aug-2015 07:07

The middleman company will be pretty unfriendly, you'll be costing them a LOT in credit card fees.
If they think they can prove you didn't intend to use the money with them, they might just come after you for the fees too (1-2% from memory).

The police anti money laundering team might pay you a visit too.

The CC supplier may never give you a card again.

The list of new friends just keeps getting longer...

Dulouz

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#1370656 20-Aug-2015 07:11

andrewNZ: The middleman company will be pretty unfriendly, you'll be costing them a LOT in credit card fees.
If they think they can prove you didn't intend to use the money with them, they might just come after you for the fees too (1-2% from memory).

The police anti money laundering team might pay you a visit too.

The CC supplier may never give you a card again.

The list of new friends just keeps getting longer...

You're right. I don't think Air NZ would care, it's the merchant who is footing the bill that would be concerned. I would assume that gambling sites have systems in place that highlights this type of behavior.

Amanon

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sbiddle

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#1370657 20-Aug-2015 07:12

If you'd come up with this idea about 3 years ago when people were doing this (and it worked) you would have been got away with it. The fact it became such common knowledge you'll find that the T&C in many credit cards have specific rules regarding gambling and treat such purchases as cash advances. I would suspect OneSmart is no different.

You can try your luck but I would suspect it no longer works. Not all merchant transactions are handled the same way, and it's very easy for a bank to know gambling sources.

code15

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#1370658 20-Aug-2015 07:21

Im quite sure I've read in t&cs that you cant earn airpoints for gambling transactions.

blackjack17

1705 posts

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#1370660 20-Aug-2015 07:35

You used to be able to buy chips at a casino with a credit card and then automatically cash out the chips (This was over 10 years ago). This would give you a cash advance interest free as well as earning reward points. From memory credit card companies now treat casino chip purchases as a cash advance.

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Lizard1977

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#1370661 20-Aug-2015 07:40

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/ben-schlappig-airlines-fly-free-20150720

scuwp

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#1370662 20-Aug-2015 07:41

It's called Fraud. Best not to post criminal intentions on the internet.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

sbiddle

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#1370663 20-Aug-2015 07:47

scuwp: It's called Fraud. Best not to post criminal intentions on the internet.

I don't see it as a fraud, however banks aren't going to give you something for nothing if they don't need to.

There are still a number of ways of exploiting Airpoints earn, however they'll all cost money to do.

You will however need to be very careful with anti money laundering legislation if you try anything overseas as there are certainly transaction types that will raise flags, and if this happens and your transaction history is looked at by a human then you run the real risk of any such scheme imploding very quickly.

sxz

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#1370664 20-Aug-2015 07:48

scuwp: It's called Fraud. Best not to post criminal intentions on the internet.

I disagree. Surely it's only fraud if it is either illegal, or explicitly against their terms and conditions. Either way, don't do anything without very carefully reviewing their T's & C's

Lias

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#1370669 20-Aug-2015 08:08

It's not fraud, it's common sense.

If you can legally work the system to get something for nothing, then more power to you.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

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