Complaint Review: Sebastien Roger Aulnay - Internet

I recently managed to avoid, but only just, a sophisticated scam to rob me of bitcoins, under the pretemse of selling airline miles to me.

This scam originated in Hong Kong, but could easily be copied or apply elsewhere. I consider myself pretty good at avoiding scams, but I did not see through this one, even though the warning signs were there. 

SUMMARY: Man calling himself Sebastien Roger Aulnay offers AsiaMiles for sale in Cragslist ad. He insists that he gives you the airline miles before you pay anything. He wants to be paid in bitcoin, and asks for a screenshot of the bitcoin wallet once you have the bitcoin as proof you will pay. He uses this screenshot to rob your wallet. 

FULL STORY:

Sebastien Roger Aulnay wants to be contacted on WhatsApp. When asked for proof he owns the miles etc he offers various screenshots of AsiaMiles accounts showing his name and up to 1.8million AsiaMiles on one account. He also says he wants to sell his wife's miles, which are another 800,000. His story is they have left Hong Kong to return to Canada and don't need the miles anymore. He gained so many miles by transferring a 'lifetime of Amex points' to the miles accounts, he claims. 

A Canadian ID card he shows as one form of proof can be seen to have been photoshopped, but at the time I did not look closely enough. 

He offers a scaling cost system:

"Price: CAD 10 for every 1000 miles for 100k miles or more. CAD 8 for every 1000 miles for 200k miles and up. CAD 7 for 300k miles or more. CAD 5 for upwards of 500k."

Initally I said I would buy 200k miles. But after thinking about it, and getting a couple of friends on board, we decided due to the cheap prioce we would buy 1.8 million, his full account's worth, and spit it between the 3 of us. Obviously this got him a bit more excited about the transaction and he offered a bulk price of CAD5k for the 1.8M miles. 

He spends time emphasising points that later prove to be irrelevant. This is a form of misdirection, to get you focused on one area of the transaction, while he exploits another. 

"You will need an active Asia miles account.. just to let you know ahead of buying any miles. It is not possible to transfer to a newly opened account. By active I mean an account which has had at least one accrual or earning activity"

He requests payment to be made in bitcoin (first sign that something is not right). I did not know much about bitcoin and he spent a lot of time talking me through the process of buying bitoin, setting up a wallet etc etc. He was very helpful (another sign, possibly, that something is not right).

He sends a lengty list of terms and conditions, and asks you to send an email promising to pay once you receive the miles. He mentions how he once got scammed himself by an Indian guy who took his miles and never paid. 

He shows a screenshot of 'his' bitcoin wallet, with 332 bitcoins inside. This is to make you feel that it's ok to share a screenshot of the wallet. It isn't! This is likely a fake account. 

When buying the bitcoin, he got concerned to know which trader I was using - possibly a sign that traders know about him and will warn you about this transaction. He specifcally told me not to use one partiucalr trader 'because he pays out the bitcoin a day late'.

Luckily for me, my friend who agreed to join in the trade did some research and found out about this scam before I bought any bitcoin. I toyed wiht him for a while, before telling him where to go. 

Other signs I should have noticed - I did try to check this guy out and there were zero Google results for a search query for his name, or his wife's name. 

Final thought: if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.