MilesBuzz! - InsideFlyer: Frequent Flyer Account Fraud....

The internet is great but brings along a number of potential problems for frequent flyers.

InsideFlyer is researching for an article, any number of incidents that frequent flyers have had their accounts hacked in to or used fraudulently by others to redeem their awards, etc.

If this has ever happened to you and you can contribute to the article, please contact lyoung@insideflyer.com or randy@insideflyer.com

You may remain anonymous with your comments and situation.

Thank you.

Not fraud, at least not yet, but I'm nervous about my Hilton HHonors account. I keep seeing bookings (once every couple of months or so) under my account, with my name but different address. So far I haven't been billed for any of these or had points deducted (and before anyone asks no points credited either). I keep pointing it out to HHonors but they don't seem to care that it is a recurring issue.

wow, now THAT problem with stink. AND As wild as some say I may be, I would NEVER hack another person.

I mean we are people who work hard and try to get the miles to work for us so we count on them as best we can. It's one thing to fight the sometimes harsh and often imoral acts of a big companies (not all are bad and I don't have any plan to go hacking them either, but you know what I mean...)

It's quite another to attack another individual. I think there's a different mindset to such types. I hope they do not get to use those stolen miles and the points --or some sort of compensation--go back to the account holder somehow even if a flight was taken by someone!

I suppose this is the age we live in. Sadly, since they're points rather than money, I don't suppose that any of the standard legal protections apply and my identity theft insurace would likely not kick in.

What surprises me most is that these thieves manage to find an award seat with award availability being what it is. Perhaps the best way to protect our points would be to move all earnings to (N)OnePass. ;)

Then again, I suppose you don't care about blowing the miles on a "Standard" award over a "Saver" when they aren't your miles anyway. Talk about adding insult to injury.

peace,
~Ben~

On the benefit side, it does make it a lot easier for people to redeem awards out of your account for you, such as if you have family that use a frequent traveler's miles to book awards for the rest of the family or in the case of the death of an account holder.