So many facets of the credit card industry are fascinating, from being able to have your card authorized anywhere in the world in less than four seconds, to the predictibility of FICO scores and how they can be integrated through the credit lifecycle. Think about how amazing it is to have a bank card that can adapt to any currency, across a wide range of payment channels.
One of my personal favorites is SMS messaging. I enjoy transacting with my Discover card or my Chase Freedom and just think it is cool that they can message my phone in near real-time to advise me of a recent purchase. I don’t mind the messaging and set the notification limit at any transaction >= to $0.01. I must get 50 of these messages a month.
The same technology just stopped a runaway child yesterday, as India’s Financial Express reports.
- An alert airline staff at the Delhi airport intercepted the 12-year-old from Faridabad before he could board a flight to Bengaluru.
- A credit card transaction to buy a flight ticket and an alert airline staff ruined a disgruntled 12-year-old boy’s grand plans to flee his home after a disagreement with his parents last Friday and reunited him with his family.
- According to a report in the Times of India, the boy had some disagreement with his parents and decided to leave home.
- He then booked a flight ticket using his mother’s credit card. However, his parents got to know about the ticket booking after getting an SMS notification.
- They immediately informed Faridabad police about the boy’s possible move.
I am a big fan of law enforcement and it is often easy to take them for granted, but this situation bears note. The child has a fight with his parents. The kid takes the mother’s credit card, calls an airline, books a flight, and then the mother gets an SMS message advising her of the charge. She calls the local police, who connect with the airline, who capture the child at the gate.
- Acting on the parents’ call, the Haryana police then informed Delhi police at the airport. Acting promptly, the Delhi police asked Vistara Airlines to detain the minor boy who may try to board flight UK 811 to Bengaluru, the report said.
- As soon as the boy got there, he was intercepted and was returned to his family. The incident happened last week on Friday at 10 pm.
When my kids were 12 years old, they’d probably be in bed by 10 on a Friday so they could be up at 7 the next morning to play soccer. It is impressive, however, that a child not old enough to have a driver’s license had the ability to not only buy a ticket online, and get himself to an airport.
One thing for sure, if this happened in the Riley household, the child would have a pretty lean Diwali. There would also be a discussion on the risks of friendly-fraud.
