Man Loses Nearly RM30K After It Gets Secretly Swapped With Rupiah on Flight

By Danial Martinus  •  17 Jan 2024 in News

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A Hong Kong man (identified only as Chow) has found himself HK$48,000 (over RM28,000) poorer after discovering that the cash he brought onto a flight mysteriously disappeared. In its place are some much less valuable Indonesian Rupiah banknotes instead.

According to Sing Tao Daily, Chow boarded an Osaka-bound Hong Kong Airlines flight with his girlfriend and relative. He stuffed a hundred HK$500 bills amounting to HK$50,000, or roughly RM31,000 into his backpack, intending to convert it to yen once he landed in Japan.

In-flight switcheroo

Chow initially stowed the backpack underneath the seat in front of him. But a flight attendant insisted he put it in one of the overhead compartments. He couldn’t put it in the one directly above him, since it was being used to store life vests. This meant that he’d have to store his backpack a few seats away.

He retrieved his backpack after landing, and that’s when his remaining stack of cash fell out. Everything seemed fine at first.

But he didn’t realise that someone had sandwiched 153 IDR2,000 banknotes between three of his HK$500 notes. For context, one IDR2,000 note is worth just HK$1. Yikes.

Chow made the shocking discovery while he was on a train in Japan. He also realised that his credit card had been stolen.

“The most cunning thing about the thief was that he covered the Indonesian money with Hong Kong money to create the illusion that my money was not gone,” Chow laments. “This made me miss the opportunity to expose the theft on the plane.”

He also blamed the Hong Kong Airlines flight attendant for insisting he put his backpack in the overhead compartment, even though he had stored it under the seat in front of him many times before.

Chow filed a police report when he returned to Hong Kong, but it’s unclear if he’ll ever get his money back.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when traveling with valuables:

1. Travel with a very minimal amount of cash on hand

We live in a world where contactless payment options are extremely common. Sure, some places will still require cash, but this only really applies to more rural or underdeveloped areas.

2. Keep your essentials on you at all times

Whether it’s cash, your precious smartphone, or your passport, these are things you can easily carry around with you in a jacket, jean pocket or fanny pack. Leaving them in a backpack exposes them to a higher risk of theft.

3. If boarding a plane with a big wad of cash in your carry-on (for some reason), let your flight attendant know

Only do this if a flight attendant insists you store your carry-on in the overhead compartment instead of under the seat in front of you (like Chow). Of course, it helps if said carry-on is a small backpack.

4. Don’t use luggage that has big, expensive brand logos

You’re basically telling all the thieves in your surroundings that you’ve got money and expensive valuables for them to steal.

5. Use an Apple AirTag or equivalent to track your luggage

If you travel with more than one piece of luggage, an Apple AirTag or Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 lets you keep track of your belongings while on the move.

This helps a lot if you lose your luggage, or worse, it gets stolen. Keep it concealed in one of your luggage/backpack compartments.

While you’re at it, you might as well learn to make smarter financial decisions for 2024