An interesting article on third party "airline customer service" agents

Well that's disturbing. Sounds like United has a dishonest employee. The article doesn't say that if after 12 minutes the caller was transferred to a different person. I think that's important. It's frustrating how vigilant we need to be.

Oh boy, this is not good. We will all have to be extra, extra careful in the future, especially when you get an email about cancelled flights.
One of the lessons I took away from BostonPhil’s tread, is Do Not Panic. Wait, think, get a plan, then make the calls.

That is both bazaar and scary. I hope we learn how this could possibly happen.

Carol nr, thanks for sharing.

Well that's scary, especially since I just booked a United flight.

This trip I just planned (all US domestic, by the way), is rather complicated involving multi-cities on different airlines. In the midst of getting the confirm emails I got an email alert from Wells Fargo saying my credit card has been frozen and I need to contact the listed number immediately. Of course the card hasn't been frozen. But it did give me pause. Gotta keep your wits about you these days.

This situation in the article is somewhat unique in that the caller did call United's customer service number, but still ended up getting transferred to a scammer...

Um, I am - lets just say - highly skeptical of that bit.

Not to pick on them, but IIRC, BostonPhil also continued to believe and insist for a long time (possibly still does) that they had called their airline, not a scammer, and somehow magically the call was technically "intercepted" by a scammer. I understand how strong the urge must be to want to believe that some mechanical trick was involved, but I am inclined to believe that in both of these cases, the victim simply called the fraudster's number, and never actually spoke with the real airline until they had been scammed, and was lured into calling a scammer from the get-go - no technical magic involved. Occam's razor.

I do not believe that there's any way that a call to a major global corporation can somehow be "intercepted" and inappropriately forwarded to some other number. Technically impossible.

I note the article contains this juicy bit (my bolding):

The BBB issues frequent alerts about fake airline customer service numbers leading to billing scams, and reports via their Scam Tracker database note how even trusted sources like Google can populate fraudulent numbers that impersonate airline support.

Sorry, anyone who believes Google searches should be considered a "trusted source" is a candidate to buy that bridge in Brooklyn, and is just not credible in my eyes. Others might disagree.

This case is alarming as Smoker’s wasn’t duped by a fake Google listing or social media post — he dialed the official United line. Somehow, his call still went sideways.

I think it's much more likely that we just have another case of that river in Egypt. The source of this article is...AOL - yeah, that AOL. Not highly credible IMHO (especially after passing along the belief that the victim's call was "intercepted"). Sorry, AOL.

Um, I am - lets just say - highly skeptical of that bit.

Agree completely here. Something fishy about this article...

Call any airline through the airline app, no way you will juxtapose numbers by typing in a number you found somewhere else. Do not call numbers listed in an email, or a number you have googled.

I think the root cause here is probably simple: the user got suckered by a fraudulent listing that bubbled up on Google search results and called them, or perhaps they found the right number but mis-dialed it (transposing or fat-fingering a digit - happens all the time, I've done this myself and ended up calling some stranger's wrong number). Either way, initiated by a simple human error. The user swears up and down that they called and reached their airline - of course they do, the person who answered their call told them they had. Of course they believe that. Better that than realizing they made an honest but expensive mistake, and was on the hook from the first call because of their mistake.

It's human nature. We saw (I think) the same thing here in the case mentioned, where the the victim believed and insisted they did nothing wrong, they're sure it was some magical technology that snatched their call during a transfer (a technology which nobody can explain) that caused their expensive, embarrassing headaches (and they may still believe that).

Maybe I'm wrong and there's some secret NSA wire-tap technology in play here, or aliens did it, or cosmic rays, or something. Which explanation seems more likely?

Pretty sure David didn’t actually read the article….

David and JoJo, did you read the article? It certainly sounds like United Airlines has confirmed the incoming call. However, their call records show a 12 minute call, not the hours long call that the customer has had verified.

Yes. It sounds fishy. But UA has confirmed part of the story and are investigating.

As a matter of fact I did read the article. (Although the popup ads made it difficult - but I'll admit that discovering AOL still existed in some form was kind of a trip down memory lane). I thought it read like complete clickbait and my BS-detector was pegging immediately.

I even googled the article's author, read his Linkedin profile and resume. He's got a solid employment record writing social media stuff, job titles like "Director of Content Monetization" and "Content Lead" for something called "Tickld" - not exactly Woodward and Bernstein, but I guess Try this One Crazy Trick! pays the bills better these days.

The victim insists they called the real number. (Sound at all familiar?) United says they've "launched in internal review" (they also say they have no record of any 3-hour-long call, which the victim claims he has a record of). I guess we'll see what United's investigation turns up. If they find their phone systems have been tapped, I'll apologize for suggesting the hapless victim probably just dialed the scammers himself one way or another. I'm willing to be proved wrong and will graciously admit I was wrong when they discover the magic technology that hijacks phone calls (unless that magic technology turns out to just have been the victim's index finger, which seems a lot more plausible to me).

I wish the victim well, whatever the explanation of the great phonecall hijacking machine mystery. Personally, I don't believe in magical phone call hijacking technology. But if anyone finds that, definitely inform the Content Monetization Team over at "Tickld", I'm sure they'll be all over the story.

Just be careful when you dial their number. ;)

The 800 numbers for every major US carrier are programed in my phone. I’ve never had a problem

I’ve never had a problem calling the number I find on the official website and I call airlines all the time because I still travel a lot on business

Hello, here I still am

After getting ripped off by the fraudster, I did a lot of research and I mean a lot of research about Pcm Travels, the company that ripped me off.

There are a lot of complaints about this company on line especially if you go to Trust Pilot and Pissed Off Consumer.

And one person did write that he called the number on the back of his United Card and somehow got connected to Pcm Travels. I do not know if it is the same person mentioned in the article or not.

I was bilked out of $759 but did get back $450 as a merchant refund when I deleted my dispute with Citi but Citi ruled in favor of the merchant for the additional monies because they did provide me with.a service. And Citi also had sent me a fraud alert while the fraudster was billing me. Citi asked me if I recognized the transaction and I said Yes because I was on the phone with Pcm Travels at the time.

My flight, which I will be taking in about 6 weeks, remains password protected so that the fraudster can not go in and change it or even cancel it. I will let forum know how it goes.

I think that we will be hearing more stories about fraudster travel sites looking like the real thing and about consumers being horribly ripped off by these sites.

By the way, if I was not supposed to name the fraudster company in this post, please let me know so that I can remove it.

Smoker’s phone logs confirm he called the official number. Yet United’s internal systems recorded only a 12-minute call, not the three hours Smoker remembers. That mismatch has fueled concern about whether a call could be intercepted or rerouted even when a customer dials an official line—a scenario consumer advocates say they have not seen documented at this scale.
While the technical path remains unclear, the impact on one family in Denver is very real. United Airlines has acknowledged multiple calls from Smoker’s number and says it has opened an internal investigation.
“We are reviewing this matter thoroughly. We’re committed to finding a fair resolution for him,” a United spokesperson said, while declining to explain how the call might have been redirected.
As of August 16, 2025, there has been no public resolution.
https://www.visaverge.com/news/united-airlines-call-scam-sees-denver-passenger-lose-17000/

Another source for the story.

1- He called the real UAL
2- UAL shows a 12 minute all
3- Victim has a 3 hr call history
4- How call went to where ever ( i.e., the scammer) is unknown
5- #4 is the scary part
6- A lot of relevant info is yet to be discovered ( and released) to explain what happened.

4 seems very likely to be the real UA agent being in cahoots with the scammer and transferring the call somehow.

The other possibility is VoIP hacking but after looking that up and reading a bit, I'm not sure this type of attack is possible. Eavesdropping attacks are possible, but it's a big leap from that to intercepting a transferred call. Still, a modern phone system is a computer connected to the internet so it wouldn't surprise me if there's a way to do it if the scammer has gained full access to the system.

seems very likely to be the real UA agent being in cahoots with the scammer and transferring the call somehow

IF everything happened the way this article says it did, THEN this is really the only logical explanation AND United should be able to figure that out pretty easily.

I assume they've had enough time to figure out what happened, and also assume they won't disclose detailed findings for legal and/or system security reasons.

Mr Smoker and his story just appeared on Good Morning America.

And here is what happened.

Mr Smoker called United to change the flight but customer service at United googled the number of the other airline. And mistakenly transferred Mr Smoker to a fraudster.

The story says that United is currently working with Mr Smoker's credit card company to sort it all out. Well, good!

So Dan Smoker did it all right but staff at United screwed up.

And the story on GMA goes on to say that these customer service scams are on the rise.

Mr Smoker called United to change the flight but customer service at United googled the number of the other airline. And mistakenly transferred Mr Smoker to a fraudster.

While not nearly as sinister as an insider at United in cahoots with a fraudster, this is nonetheless extremely disturbing.

Was the victim ever told he was being transferred to another airline? Everything written about this story to this point indicated he thought he was talking to United for 3 hours...fwiw, no way in hell I would stick around on a protracted phone call with an airline for3 hours, I would have hung up and tried again later.

customer service at United googled the number of the other airline.

Wow. Obviously, like the general public CS agents need to be trained not to trust phone numbers in google results. And they probably shouldn't be transferring customers to other companies, period.

Also... what other airline? I must have missed something but everything I've read about this case says Mr. Smoker thought he was on the phone with United the whole time.

well, i did a search and found this article online which might or might not answer some questions. Or maybe raise even more.

https://creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/customer-calls-united-customer-service-about-a-flight-gets-scammed-for-17000--what-happened-171650894.html

There is only so much print allowed in articles or time allowed on TV.

Maybe one day, Dan Smoker will write a column about what happened to him and we can talk to him directly. Or maybe he has already created a youtube video. I am going to check.

several youtube videos about the situation

Here is what i typed in address line:

united airlines customer get scammed for 17,000

got several results with the most recent about two days old and this content creator has a very interesting theory about "what really happened"

This tells the new info:

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/man-fell-travel-scam-rebooking-united-airlines-flight/story?id=124873491

Seems to me AMEX is under no obligation to refund a charge the victim foolishly authorized, but United has egg on its face and will surely make the victim whole.

Thanks for that last link, definitely clears some things up.

So it's almost certainly a case of the CS agent failing to follow protocol.

As someone who occasionally calls in to airlines to make changes that can't be made online and may involve new charges, I'll be sure to be extra careful.

• call from within the app only

• if the agent has to transfer the call to someone else, confirm that it's within the company

• before calling, be aware of what any new charges should be and ask lots of questions if there's a significant difference

Why would a UAL agent need to 'look up' the number for a partner airline?

EDIT- Found the answer( From the link in Jojo's post)

United Airlines told ABC that the initial investigation shows a United agent was doing her best to help Smoker, and because he was trying to book on another airline, the agent googled the other airline's phone number and transferred him to a scammer by accident. The agent was supposed to use an internal system to look up the phone number, but didn't follow proper protocol, the carrier told ABC News. United is working with American Express to make the situation right for Smoker, the airline said.

Omg, I think this just happened to me with Swiss Air. I was about to make separate post.
Be careful calling numbers based on Google look up. I had a question, was a little tired/lazy after day's work, and apparently I called a fake Swiss Air. I had a question about something completely different (transporting a cat), but the "agent" said that my flight wasn't confirmed yet, needed to pay airport fees of $250. I gave him not one but two credit cards - which were both declined. He wanted me to get the bank to allow the charges and gave me a direct number so I could call him back and take care of it.

So I was more careful calling back with phone number, and the real Swiss Air agent thought it was a scam. I cancelled both credit cards (which means 0 credit cards for me till Monday or Tuesday) and hope that I didn't give too much other information.

Sigh.....