TravelObsessed

Short version (which is tough):

There is a fraudster going around redeeming flights out of other peoples Rapid Rewards account. They change your email address by phone so you don't get any notifications about it and have no way of identifying the loss until it is too late.

Southwest knows that this guy has redeemed flights on at least 6 peoples accounts, they have not closed the security flaw, and they refuse to reinstate my points. I am LIVID. Check your balance often.

My favorite part about this is that it means some guy is repeatedly passing through TSA security with a fake ID. Southwest has everything they need to arrest the guy in the airport and instead they would rather just tell me I'm out the $314.

rsteinmetz70112

How do you know he's using false id? Points can be used for any name.

pinniped

The guy took the flight in your name? (e.g., He's producing fake IDs for each time he does this?!? )

That's ballsy...and probably going to make things a whole lot worse for this guy once he's busted. (vs. if he was just redeeming in his own name)

TravelObsessed

Just an assumption. I would think that someone stealing thousands of dollars worth of points would not do so with their own name.

tatterdema

People do the same with credit cards all the time. They don't use my name, just because they used my credit card. Many times they are selling the tickets, so they are in an unaware persons name. Yeah, it does suck.

TravelObsessed

In this instance it is ONE person's name and travel on MULTIPLE Rapid Reward accounts... so I doubt it is a situation where someone is selling the tickets.

rsteinmetz70112

How can theyou sell tickets with aname, without ID.

Also if you catch it before the flight is flown, you can cancel the ticket.

tatterdema

Sue wants a ticket. John sells her a ticket in her name using your account. Makes perfect sense to me anyway.... If I were going to steal points for tickets from someone, that is what I would do. When it has been done (several times) using my credit cards, the bank wont even look into it, let alone cancel the ticket, or send anyone to the airport. Pretty pathetic.

olouie

Did they not restore your points?

TravelObsessed

Nope. Over the course of over a month they strung me along and had me call back about a dozen times. They admitted that they could see the same person traveling on multiple other accounts... and that there was no way I could have prevented it from happening... and yet they refuse to even PARTIALLY refund my points. Paid a $69 annual credit card fee just to get those points and I didn't even get to use them.

toomanybooks

Head for Small Claims Court. What else can you do?

normalone

The question is what information did this person have that allowed him to change your account's email? He would have had to have your name and RR#, right?

exwannabe

More importantly, why did not a change to the email account not generate an email to the old address? This is absolutely needed, as most account security falls to useless once the email address is compromised.

TravelObsessed

Unfortunately that may be what this ends up coming to... I am currently dealing with BBB and my local paper's consumer advocate.


Apparently the perpetrator made the changes via phone... which I was informed is the loophole that does not trigger the email to the old address. At first I hesitated to share that detail online because it could encourage further abuse but... not my problem.

Honestly my best guess is that it is a disgruntled Airtran (or Southwest or Chase) employee doing it... as the theft occurred a mere 2 weeks after my credit card reward points posted. Bit of a coincidence that the points were stolen almost immediately after there were enough points worth stealing!

flyer4512

Seems a lot safer way to steal your points would have been to drain you account to zero using gift cards vs having a person travel with ID, cameras, etc.

When Hilton had this issue the crooks were buying items, mostly beats headphones