May 15, 1999; D-Day was fast approaching.
It had taken time, and a lot of hard work, to create the leaflet to accompany credit card statements. Fresh objections from Warner and Michel, who had both begun suffering yet another bout of cold feet, had to be addressed.
Warner wanted to conduct a trial introduction in Dubai only, where any fallout could be rapidly monitored and contained, and Michel was especially concerned at the filtering out, from the scheme, of cardholders who had not yet held cards for six months. He was sure that employees involved in preparation of statements would notice.
Chad was now at his brilliant best.
He sorted out Warner’s latest objections with a series of arguments, roping in Kerry for support. Kerry, holed up in New York, and acutely aware of the illegality of the venture, was hopeful that distance would create some form of additional immunity. Though tempted to sabotage the project, he, under the watchful gaze of Snyder, held fast, and Warner was won over yet again.
Michel’s doubts were laid to rest with a simple proposal - send out new-member statements first. As there were no alterations to be made, print as always, pack as always – and despatch. It was that easy. Simply cloak the real reason with boss logic.
Michel was most impressed, and it was only the matter of a moment to dictate a memo, whereby it had come to his notice that major bottlenecks were being created in distribution of statements, which bottlenecks were henceforth to be eliminated by ensuring that cardholders who had held cards less than six months were sent statements first. Copies were despatched to computer centres - and it was over, with a minor adjustment to their programme. Only selected cardholder statements could be and must be printed and despatched by the 17th, and the rest could only be printed on and after the 18th.
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In the meantime the Credit Shield Insurance leaflet designed for enclosure had been prepared. The printing company was instructed to withhold delivery until authorised by Michel Chamoun himself.
Warner, Michel and Chad met to study the leaflet one last time. It was perfect. Designed with invisibility in mind, it was a truly unremarkable sheet of paper. It read as though it contained an invitation to insure credit cards. The words Credit Shield Insurance were printed in medium grey on a light grey background.
But, of course, the Citizenbank team took additional measures to minimise the chances of this particular paper being read. A great many promotional leaflets were to be enclosed with the statement - restaurant discounts, shopping discounts, air miles, bonus points, CitizenDollars… Envelopes were to go out packed as tight as possible. In fact, the next three statements would be the fattest envelopes in the history of Citizenbank’s credit card statements.
On the 16th morning, Chad and Michel went personally to the bank’s mail centre in Dubai to observe despatch of the first round of mail, monitoring other locations by telephone. They then went round to the computer centre, to verify that every single statement due to be sent in round one had been printed.
One by one, reports came in from Citizenbank’s other offices in the territory - Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Um Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Bahrain, Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa, Salalah, Kuwait and Doha. By evening of the 17th of May 1999, statement despatch had been completed.
The first round was over.
On the 18th, Citizenbank’s mail centres around the Gulf were delivered the new leaflet, the one containing an unremarkable announcement about Credit Shield Insurance.
Special instruction was given - every leaflet and enclosure had to be inserted, no matter that envelopes bulged excessively.
Computer Centres were now issued a new set of instructions:
- Every statement to be printed in round two would have a new charge - Credit Shield Insurance.
- It would be calculated at 4 Units per 1,000 Units outstanding.
- The charge would also be reversed in the same statement, thus making no change to the final figure.
- Another couple of lines of text, camouflaged in a mass of other text, would state, ‘please refer to enclosed leaflet for details’.
- One other instruction (and it did have the computer people puzzled) was given - the Credit Shield Insurance reversal charge would appear first on the statement (before the charge itself).
On the 20th of May 1999, these bulging envelopes were despatched to two million unwary customers.
The Credit Shield Insurance scam was on!