Scores of Batswana students studying in Malaysia could not believe their luck when a stranger offered them cheap air tickets to fly home for the Christmas holidays. The bargain deal turned into a nightmare when they found themselves broke and stranded at Singapore airport because the cheap tickets turned out to be fake.
Three female Batswana students from A.P.I.I.T College in Kuala Lumpur, who were hunting for Christmas air ticket bargains, had more than they had bargained for when their tickets where cancelled after it was discovered that they had been bought on the black market with a stolen credit card.
It is understood that the tickets were bought from a Nigerian fraudster who found the unsuspecting students an easy target for his scheme.
Some of the students who had bought tickets from the same Nigeria, however, managed to fly home without any hitches. They, however, had a rude awakening on their flight back to college when they discovered that their tickets had been blacklisted.
Two Limkokwing students were turned away by a Malaysian airline at Oliver Tambo Airport, South Africa, and were advised to buy new tickets.
They spent the night at the airport while trying to find their way back. They have since managed to buy new tickets and returned to school.
According to the airline manager, they had already let a few students go through with the same tickets but it had to stop.
A.P.I.I.T Student Representative Council (SRC) President, Simisane Kelaotswe, confirmed the incident but would not be drawn into discussing details saying he still had to get consent from the victims.
The students who were traveling from Malaysia to Botswana are said to have bought the tickets from the Nigerian man who had initially claimed to be from Cameroon.
Sunday Standard is informed that the school, in agreement with the Embassy of Botswana in China, gave the students loans to help pay for their tickets to Botswana for the holidays.
