Fraud seen in in-flight credit card sales

Several Asian airlines including Japanese are seeing growing credit card fraud in the purchase of duty-free items on international flights, Japanese police say.

Such usage has resulted in losses running into millions of dollars for credit card companies, reported Kyodo news service which investigated the problem. The fraud goes on because the in-flight staff is unable to perform online authorization of credit card use, police said.

Police in Chiba prefecture, which has jurisdiction over Narita International Airport, Japan's largest international gateway, has opened an investigation into the fraud, saying they suspect several cross-border rings are involved.

Chiba police say they have identified one such ring, made up of a dozen members including Thai and Filipino nationals. Authorities are considering involving the Interpol in the investigation.