Travelers - Beware of Airline Impostor Scams

When an actual human being answered an airline customer service
hotline after a single ring, I probably should have known I was being
scammed.

That's pretty sad when we have to be suspicious because the customer service is too good.

"In my case, the scammer exploited weaknesses in Google’s automated ad-screening system, so that fraudulent sponsored results rose to the top."

Well, in addition to what the author of the article wrote, the scammer also exploited the weaknesses of someone in a hurry who is not being careful with information from their searches.

Maybe you missed this thread last spring with 171 posts where a forum poster did exactly the same thing as the author did...googled the airline number and got tangled with a scammer.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/what-american-airlines-pulled-on-me

And her follow on thread....

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/mea-culpa-it-took-some-time-but-now-i-finally-understand

I haven't heard of this scam, thanks for posting.

I don't use social media, and normally use the airline apps or the airline websites for contact numbers. Thankfully I haven't had many occasions to call them while I've been travelling.

Be careful of the "Airline web site". The same technique that can make google show a false phone number can be used to direct to a false web site. Some of them are really good imitations, some of them aren't.

RobertH,

When I'm using the airline website, usually a quick glance at the URL gives me an indication of whether it's real or fake. The app has always been reliable (so far).

For somebody that knows to read the url checking certainly helps. Google, and others, are pushing schemes where you don't see the url anymore.

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-discover-feed-share-link-shortened/

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-just-made-the-best-argument-for-hiding-the-url-in-your-browsers-address-bar