A $12,000 airline scam

Similarly, I'm encountering more and more counterfeit websites. Just recently, Athleta, Vessi and Allbirds. I found good deals and the more I looked, I realized the websites were a bit different.

That article reminds us all the best antidote to such fake airline numbers is to save in advance to your contacts in your cell phone the real numbers of any airlines you might need on a trip.

I maintain a lot of bookmarks in my web browser. Particularly airlines, banks, ebay, and other important ones. I save the bookmarks to a file and copy it to my cellphone. More and more it's important not to trust G**gle Search. I use either DuckDuckGo or Startpage search engines, as they don't harvest and sell any search I do.

If you are using your airline apps, all the airline contact info and any other info you need is in there.

Hi Mardee

I would love to read the article but it is only available to subscribers. Is there any way to unlock it for non subscribers?

Agree strongly with your post. As you remember, I got bilked out of $759 last trip.

Have been keeping up with scammers and scam centers since.

Many of the scam centers are in Southeast Asia and the scammers are often persons who have been enslaved when they thought they were headed to a job.

Glad to say that our government is now getting involved.

Attaching one notification from the State Department. There are a couple more re other areas in S E Asia. These scam centers are often responsible for bilking American travelers.

Although it does not say anything about travel scams, these centers often bilk travelers.

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/imposing-sanctions-on-online-scam-centers-in-southeast-asia-2/

I found what I believe to be the story on MSN but with annoying ads

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/the-simple-travel-scam-that-cost-a-seasoned-traveler-over-12000/ar-AA21Xn8M

Mardee, if you recall my story, this is very similar to what happened to me.

Bostonphil, not sure what the issue is for you but I'm not a WSJ subscriber and can read the article Mardee provided. Maybe clear your cache?

Thank you Kate

Here is what I get when I try to click on Mardee's link.

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/the-simple-travel-scam-that-cost-a-seasoned-traveler-over-12-000-7d317f20?st=RGQy21&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

I tried to sign up for a free account and had issues with that as well.

Maybe it has something to do with my having a macbook or being with Spectrum or living in Texas????

BostonPhil, you will get a pop-up when you click on that unlocked comment. All you have to do is just click on the tiny arrow on the far right and it will go away. You do NOT need to subscribe to read the article, I promise.

It happens with other things besides airlines and travel. If you don't do business online often enough to know, you get caught by the search engine scammers.

Thanks for this Mardee. Your post helps us all keep awareness about a key aspect of our travels.
I am done. The end.

Thanks for posting this. And the link worked for me after clicking the small arrow in the upper right corner of the pop up window, thanks for that tip as well!
Kevin

Mardee

It took a bit but I finally figured out what to do to read the article.

Very interesting and very similar to what happened to me when I tried to rebook my flight to Japan.

Do you want me to delete my responses about having problems reading the article?

Thank you for the post.