The baggage check scam illustrates the main characteristics of
all scams which afflict registration systems.
These characteristics are:
*the use of an insider (delinquent clerk)
*the use of deliberate clerical error
*the use of the helpful clerical worker to perform
unauthorized searches and approvals
THE HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION
Let us imagine for the sake of illustrating how this particular scam works that
a terrorist wants to blow up the Empire State
Builing in New York. He knows that a bomb located in a railway locker below the
Empire State building will do the job but there are strict requirements
and procedures which would detect the metal in any baggage going into the
railway storage locker.
1. The terrorist boards the train at Dallas. A clerical worker (an accomplice issues him
with a paper ticket 3248 however when the ticket seller enters the terrorist's
registration, he enters on a previously entered (but not issued) entry 2248.
2. The use of this close (but not quite close enough) number is a key sign of
registration fraud as it allows the insider accomplice to claim "simple mistake" if ever this substitution
is discovered.
3. The insider clerk could set up this situation in advance by issuing ticket 2248, then having this and instead
of having the registration cancelled - shifting it to another file such as priority, stand-by or an editing
file where the registration will stay "alive" for a number of days.
4. The clerical accomplice hands the terrorist a paper ticket for 3248 but as the
registration is entered on the computer as 2248 the magnetic baggage tape is printed out for 2248 as this is
what is really registered within the computer.
5.The magnetic tape tag is placed on the terrorist's luggage. This will enable the
terrorist to escape normal security checks as the readings of the magnetic tape will show an old number
2248. The security staff will assume that these "2" numbers have already been checked as they know that the
number series they of baggage for their section will be a later series namely the "3" series. They will assume that the
older series have been transferred along from a previous departure point and have already been searched. This use of an
older series number is a good sign that auditing provisions in a registration system have been bypassed with assistance
from an insider who is aware of which series of numbers is current.
6. When the terrorist gets to New York he has to retrieve his bag and then store them in the baggage
storage area.
7. The baggage check clerk at New York, takes the terrorist ticket and enters 3348 into the computer
and does not find the passenger's name. The passenger becomes very agitated as he has no baggage and is in a
strange city. The baggage-check clerk wants to be helpful so he or she SEARCHES under the passenger's name or even
his name and birthday. This helpful searching is the downfall of many offical registration systems.
8. When the clerk checks for the passenger under his name she finds him under registration number 2248 and she assumes
that THIS is the entry. She or he simply assumes that the silly clerk at the other end has made a mistake. She is now
convinced that this is a bona fide passenger and that the 2248 registration means that the passenger has undergone
all the required processing and that there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with his luggage.
8. As the baggage check system is probably a "locked system" - that is the baggage check can't edit entries -
she may change the number on the paper ticket to 2248 or write on the new baggage registration ticket
"as in 3248" or something to that effect. None of this really has any effect however as the clerk is concentrating
on the fact that the passenger is bona fide. She therefore issues him with a baggage ticket so that he can store
his baggage in the baggage lockers and retrieve it at a later date.
9. Assuming that she issues him a storage ticket with the number 65258 - he stores his bags and one day later the
whole complex blows up. The officers investigating the accident will know that the bag was in a particular area but they
will probably have difficulty in tracing the person responsible due to the time lapse and also due to the fact that they
won't think to look back for older tickets to see where the terrorist originally came from and to find the insider help in
Dallas.
10. It could be argued that explaining how a simple filing scam like this could lead to serious terrorism events is encouraging
such events. However this problem of the baggage check scam has already been dealt with in transport systems. This is why if you
lose your airline ticket you just have to buy another one because of the risk of fraud. It should be remembered that the Lockerbie
disaster occurred due to a similar scam which exploited loopholes relating to unaccompanied baggage.
11. As tighter security has been effected to prevent terrorists exploiting these sorts of loopholes in transport systems what do
these terrorists then do next? They apply the same principle to other easily exploited registration systems such as land title registries. After
all why risk life and limb when you can acquire property immediately by pulling the same scam in a land titles office.
Exactly the same techniques of using insider knowledge, exploiting predictable auditing, using the partially cancelled registration number,
getting clerks to search on other than the registration number and the correction of "patent" errors can be used to produce false land
titles and probably has been used for some time in various land title registries.
11. What law enforcement and compliance authorities tend to forget is that an informed public is essential to police registration systems.
If we consider the above example for instance it is possible that some passenger is going to a baggage check ticket which says "3348" and a ticket
which says some other number. This occurs because of the previous substitution. The alert passenger might complain and point out the problem to
transport authorities - however if the persons complained to do not point out the anomoly then this sort of problem can occur constantly. It is
important that people are able to recognize this sort of substitution and disruption of normal registration processes whenever they occur.
