Recent airline mayhem is creating more openings for online fraud. With staff shortages, high prices and flight cancellations, air travel is an easy target.
The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about a new scam trend they’re seeing pop up around the country.
They say scammers are cashing in on our flight frustrations, creating third party sites where you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
With soaring fares, it sounds too good to be true. It is, and it only gets worse.
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After you book and pay, BBB says a fake customer service representative may give you a ring or send you an email saying you have to pay an extra charge to complete the booking.
In other instances, they're hearing from folks that say a faux customer service rep will reach out and say that the flight you booked just got cancelled, so you need to pay something else to rebook.
But Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut says in these instances, there was no ticket to begin with.
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While they haven’t had a report of a victim in our state, they say it’s happening in parts of the country which they believe means it’s probably impacting Connecticut consumers.
“One victim says she called the airline afterwards and they said that they had no record of her flight, so we tell people you need to research these third-party booking sites, go to BBB.org, look at past customer reviews,” said Kristen Johnson, director of communications for BBB Serving CT.
Johnson warns that the “customer service” rep is even stealing people’s personal information and credit card number, too - so beware.
BBB says they’re even seeing people who book legit flights through the proper channels later getting cancellation emails from scammers who want to help you rebook, but your flight never was canceled. So, make sure to check with the airline first.
We all want to find the cheapest flight price, but there are so many different third-party sites. How do you know they’re legit?
Look up or Google the company’s name with the word scam, go to bbb.org to check if someone has reported the so-called company, and lastly, head to the airline website to make sure that flight actually exists.
