Longtime readers of my newsletter already know this travel tip but it’s crucial for everyone to know. A post on Reddit is going viral after a user posted a thread with the headline: Fake United Number. RELATED: ‘Nobody is safe’: Scammers target California woman, cancel her Carnival cruise and steal money
The user then detailed how he and his girlfriend fell for what is becoming a common travel scam: “PSA: My girlfriend tried to call United this morning to get info on a pet policy for a flight and tried to call this number (555) 555-5555. (Editor’s note: I changed the number so others don’t accidentally call it). Made this mistake of giving the operator the flight confirmation number and then the call started to sound scammy with the guy avoiding the questions about our pet and instead started saying that our seats we purchased months ago were not actually available.
We hung up after this as it was a big red flag for both of us but the damage was done within 5 minutes after hanging up scammer had cancelled both our flights. We’re on the phone with the real United right now to see what we can do but looks like we have to purchase all new tickets. So PSA to make sure to always call the numbers off the United app and not look up a number on Google lol”
It’s egregious to me that Google continues to give these scammers a platform and can’t or won’t figure out how to stop them. I guess their ad money is just too valuable. It’s also upsetting that United can’t or won’t reinstate their tickets and change the PNR number. Many Redditors agree:
CardboardTick: In the future don’t use a search engine to find a number. Instead go to the website or the app of the airline to find what you need. Scammers are quick to use these types of exploits.
SWBFThree2020: It’s so [messed] up. Especially since Search Engines pin “Ads” to the top as the first result without even vetting where it’s from. I remember absent mindedly clicking on the first link after searching “United Airline” and it was some sketchy site that asked me for my email and phone number
Mkrbc: And take care to make sure you are on the real website and not a spoofed on. I once had the unfortunate responsibility to tell a couple they did not have a reservation at check in because they bought their tickets through a spoofed United site.
Cultural-War-2838: There are scammers posing as United Customer Service on Facebook. They use a United Logo as a profile picture and message people who mention they had a problem with United.
Dirtesoxlvr: I’ve never called united (or Hilton or a large business) where the number didn’t go into a phone tree. That would have been red flag 1.
Wrongwayup: Yup had the same issue with Air Canada once. They used to change their top tier frequent flier phone numbers every so often to keep people (like me) from trying to use them after having lost status, sharing the number, etc. Someone squatted the number and when I called the number on the back of an old gold card started asking questions about the credit card number on file “for verification purposes”. Nope!
So now you know. Never Google a phone number for any major travel company and if you do, don’t get your information from the sponsored ads at the top. It’s best to go to the company’s official website or app and contact them through there or using the numbers listed under their Contact Us section.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time this type of scam occurs and this couple should feel lucky they only lost their reservation and didn’t give these scammers money. Here are a couple of recent stories about other travelers; one who fell for the scam and one who exposed it.
–‘Nobody is safe’: Scammers target California woman, cancel her Carnival cruise and steal money
–Traveler exposes scammer’s trick for stealing airline passengers’ money.
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