An email between a scammer and an airline passenger has revealed a major problem facing Australian travellers as they are warned not to Google this.
An eyewitness recalled the horror of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash as people laid flowers and brought toys to the memorial on Wednesday (July 17) at a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down near Hrabov in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Often, the first thing people do is search for the words ‘airline contact details’ after problems with bookings or a change in holiday plans – but one travel expert has warned that these are the three words you should never Google.
Mark Trim, founder and managing director of travel agency RoundAbout Travel, revealed to news.com.au that the Google scam involving airline contact details is the latest scam to hit Australian travellers as many embark on their European holidays.
“Third parties are now competing for these keywords to appear at the top of search results and look like airline call center staff,” he said.
A travel expert is giving Australians a stark reminder to beware of Google scams, after a surge in the number of scams in recent months. Photo: iStock
“They actually hide their work for the airline, access your booking details and overcharge you for changes that amount to thousands of dollars.”
He said that in the past two weeks alone three people have been tricked into believing their confirmed bookings were on a “waitlist” and they would have to pay to load them when their booking was perfectly fine.
“These scammers can update Google Maps listings or create fake websites/companies like flightreservationscentre.com,” he explained.
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In an email to news.com.au, an Australian couple were scammed out of $3,585 – $5,320 AUD, before their bank stepped in and reversed the charges.
The scammer, who claimed to be from Lufthansa’s support team, charged the customer for “new tickets.”
The scammer went so far as to say that he received a notice of the dispute from his financial institution.
“If you filed this dispute in error, please contact your financial institution to cancel the dispute and send us a copy of the cancellation letter. Alternatively, you can also contact me through my information below and I will help you mutually resolve this dispute (sic),” the email read.
He said most cases involve a customer at the airport having trouble checking in and Googling “airline” to try to get help, and that’s when “things go wrong.” Photo: iStock
Mr. Trim said the incident occurred when the customer arrived at the airport and faced a problem during check-in because his infant’s last name was different from his mother’s last name (who was born since their original booking).
“They Googled the airline’s support number and were able to reach a fraudulent service that was pretending to be the airline,” he said.
“The scammer was smart enough to take advantage of their stressful situation and get key booking details from them and then tell them they would have to issue new tickets to correct the entire booking.”
Mr Trim said the scammers took the customer’s credit card details and payment method, but never issued new tickets.
Instead, he suggested asking the counter staff for help — or going directly to the airline’s website to find the support number (not Googling it). Photo: iStock
“[The email] “The response from the fraudulent company appears after the customer disputed the charges on his credit card. You can see that the charges cost him $3,585, but fortunately the bank intervened.”
Mr. Trim said the scammers are using the website “flightdeskbook.com,” which is not a real URL.
“But according to the disputed email, it appears that they are hiding emails from this site as if they are legitimate.”
“They switch between different but similar domains (to send emails) so as not to get caught, as there is often no active website. They use a fake phone number and pretend to be an airline and then disguise their emails to look legitimate to trap travelers.”
He said most examples involve a customer at the airport having a problem checking in (delayed check-in, no visa, issue with passport expiration date) so they Google and call the airline to try to get help.
“This is where things go wrong,” he warned, “as they don’t actually call the airline, but a fraudulent number that appears to be legitimate.”
“Then the fraudster can collect information from the customer and use it to tell them that there are problems with their ticket or that they are in a waiting list and they will have to pay extra to fix it.”
He said this usually happens by hiding the airline support phone number on Google.
Mr. Trim recommends going directly to the airport service desk if your flights are delayed or cancelled.
However, if travelers have no choice but to call the airline, “they should either get the number from the check-in staff at the airport or go to the airline’s website directly to find the support number (not use Google to find a number).”
“We have dealt with three customers in the last two weeks affected by the same scam, but there have been more customers over the past few months which is a steady increase over the first few months of the year,” Mr Trim said.
