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.

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.

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.

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.

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.....

I was flying on Lufthansa and was scammed by PCM Travel. Checking in at Heathrow on a Sunday at 0700hrs in December 2025. My son's passport did not scan on a machine and a person dressed as airline assistance directed him to a man at a desk with a sign Customer Service. He gave us a list of 800 US numbers and the whole thing seemed legit. Called the 800 number thinking it was Lufthansa and he asked for the confirmation number. Once he had that, he threatened to cancel my son's entire ticket if I did not pay for the change. He told me no flight until next day. I made the flights and there were empty seats. The hostility that the man on the phone exhibited and the empty seats made me suspisious.

When I got home, I realized an entity named PCM Travel was behind this scam as they had charged me. Cost me 400+ to Lufthansa, 300+ to the scammer, and 160 for overnight at hotel for my son. I am debating via my credit cards.

Meanwhile I reported them to Heathrow security who said that airlines are in charge of these check-ins and desk personnel. I don't know how Lufthansa allows that except maybe so early on a Sunday they don't check?

I reported PCM Travel to MasterCard and wonder how they are allowed to put through charges at all. MasterCard seemed receptive of investigating.

The internet is loaded with incidents where PCM Travel -- oeprating out of India -- has posed as customer service reps and scammed many people. No reply from PCM Travel of course.

I have also read that PCM is active at Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle.

huentegreen

It was PCM Travel that bilked me out of $759 my last vacation although I was able to recover $450.00.

PCM Travel has a long and ugly history of cheating travelers. You can read some of the stories on Pissed Off Consumer and Trust Pilot.

I am the bostonphil who Carol is mentioning in her discussion.

I was booked with American going to Tokyo and had to rebook. I went to aa.com and did not realize that it was a fraudster site. When I called, I was calling PCM travel although they were going under another one of their names. They have many names.

My story is a very long one but PCM travel did give me back $450.00. I tried to get back the other $300 plus opening a dispute with Citi but Citi ruled in favor of PCM travel because I had accepted services. They did rebook my travel to Japan.

I will be interested if you get your money back.

Because this discussion is old, you might begin a brand new discussion.

I will try to find my discussion and see if I can send to you.

UPDATE. I found my discussion and copied a small portion for you. The discussion became extremely long, so long that I did not attach a link.

" Have Been Victimized by Fake American Airlines Employees. (This title is edited.)
Jump to bottom Posted by bostonphil7 (TX) on 05/28/25 07:44 AM
UPDATE and EDIT: The notification, cancellation and change that I received from AA was legit. But the so called employee who rebooked me was a sort of fraudster. It was someone who worked for a third party travel service in India. He let me think that he was an American employee. He did rebook me but I was charged $759 for the rebooking. it was not American who charged me. it ws the fraudulent company."

And the fraudster company would turn out to be PCM Travel.