[mkagenius]

> Once she ran out what she could do under her own name and started using fake ones

How do you know this? This may be a pre-emptive strategy

Also, as mentioned in other comments: She didn't use fake identities, she booked on the behalf of family and friends.

[corobo]

Did they get the money?

[foolmeonce]

It says in the article that the insured traveller need not collect it. This was probably not a mistake in the terms, I.e. an employer buys employees and candidates tickets and wants to limit their own losses when the logistics fall through.

[nogabebop23]

historically insurance companies have let you buy many types of insurance for anybody, naming yourself the beneficiary. Pretty tough to not be caught these days, but this do lead to the obvious insure => "terrible accident" => collect cycle. Even then they tended to get caught eventually. Herman Mudgett did this several times around the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.