TOW#4

TOW #4

           

            A teenager, Reece Scobie aged 19, conned travel agents out of expensive flights and hotel rooms used by A-list celebrities costing the travel agencies £70,000.  While on a short excursion to Los Angeles during a six-month spending spree his scam was uncovered where he was forced to beg the company he extorted to pay for his flight home.  Scobie was able to use his expert technology skills to book at least five luxury holidays, each costing between 5,000 and 10,000 Euros, as well as already traveling the USA, UK and Singapore.  He has been compared to Frank Abagnale Jn who was the influence for the movie Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo di Caprio.  Scobie’s feat can also be comparable to Giacomo Casanova who also conned his way through out Europe and the known world.

            The author, Auslan Cramb, hopes to inform the reader of this con artist while at the same time, while trying to compare him with Frank Abagnale Jn.  Cramb does this through imagery on his page and through comparing and contrasting the details of his many travels.  The image used on the first page (below) is a comparison shot between Scobie and Leonard di Caprio which he uses to compliment the title where he compares how Scobie conned his way into traveling and into high class hotels while Leonard di Caprio (representing Frank Abagnale Jn) pretended to be a pilot to con his way onto flights. 

I believe Cramb somewhat failed in convincing his audience, the UK and USA public, that Scobie is a modern da Frank Abagnale Jn.  He fails in his purpose by quoting Scobie’s lawyer who is trying to down play Scobie’s actions so as to get him a leaner sentencing.  Cramb also makes Scobie appear helpless and not as intelligent as Cramb initially set him up to be when he explains that Scobie was only able to book these flights simply because a travel agent forgot to log out of an airport where Scobie simply stole his passwords.  If Cramb wants to compare Scobie to Frank Abagnale Jn he should not have quoted the lawyer and he should have explained more of Scobie’s intelligence that went into it.

“Auslan Cramb is the Telegraph's Scottish Correspondent.”  He is also a writer for The Telegraph.

Cramb, Auslan. "Teenage Con Artist Jailed after Travelling the World in £70,000 Fraud." Telegraph. The Telegraph, 3 Oct. 2013. Web.