htb

My baggage was delayed on a recent flight and I had to purchase some clothing items for the next day, so I've contacted LH for re-imbursement.

The reply was quite positive up to and including the point that a copy of my ID (with the ID number blackened) would be necessary for the payment. But then it continued with

Is this standard procedure or is someone attempting to make me jump through loops? I find it is highly unusual that anything but a copy of my ID (if at all) would be necessary to initiate the re-imbursement.

HTB.

mevr

I find that very concerning, it smells of potential identity theft. Try to get it done without that step.

Shiv01

Depends....can you tell if it's an official LH email address? Can you check the LH website and find a number to call them on to check?

htb

Thank you for confirming that this indeed seems unusual / confirming that it may be normal.

It's definitely from LH ([email protected]). I've reached out on Facebook and already got a reply requesting the feedback ID so they can check. I'll report back on what they'll find.

HTB.

worldclubber

htb

Answer is back: apparently they have implemented this new procedure. Absolutely appalling.

HTB.

hugolover

You don't have to do that. It could be considered an unreasonable clause and unlawful. If they refuse, sue, and let the judge decide if that is reasonable under for example, the UTCCR.

roybadami

Not talking about Lufthansa specifically, but ID selfies have become a thing over the last year or so. They're annoying, but expect to see more of this in future.

Look at it this way: with the increase in people conducting business relationships entirely online, it's increasingly commonplace for people to submit scans of their ID to open an account with some organisation that needs to check ID, such as a financial organisation (where previously we would probably have visited their offices and shown our ID).

As a consequence, there are potentially lots of companies that have scans of our IDs, and it's an increasing concern that, when companies suffer data breaches, ID scans might be amongst the data stolen. Personally I've given scans of my ID to enough organisations over the last few years that I'm quite pleased that people are realising that the fact that someone has got hold of one of those PDF files most definitely shouldn't be taken as definitive evidence that they're me...

That said, a simple selfie of you holding your ID is a very poor solution - there's nothing to stop such selfies being stolen in data breaches in future, either. A better way of doing this would be to ask you to take a selfie of yourself holding your ID and a note saying "For Lufthansa only". I definitely hear of this happening now, at least in the cryptocurrency space. And cryptocurrency exchanges seem to be at the forefront of these thiings, given the fact that they tend to conduct busienss enitrely online, and they have some *very* wealthy customers. Where they lead, other companies seem to follow...

How good any of this really is at deterring fraud all depends on how good they are at spotting photoshopped selfies. But I guess it makes it harder, at least. Maybe that's all you can hope for....

htb

I'd love to do that. But I'm not sure 50€ warrant this path... I was thinking of spreading this publicly as wide as possible to shame them. Any ideas where to send this story to?

HTB.

htb

Thanks for the background. When I searched for "ID next to face" on goolge, I could only find one obscure site that was requesting this.

I share the fear that this may become commonplace and anyone with a copy of such a picture with ID will be able to pass as me...

Also, I just don't see why any of this should be necessary for requesting a claim for a confirmed baggage delay with a scan of the original claim receipt issued by a Lufthansa station, that was recorded in the Lufthansa system, and is requested by the passenger on file with receipts from the day of the delay. Even asking for boarding passes is not warranted because the information leaflet passed out does not mention that one should keep boarding passes for a later claim. Only "Write to LH with copies of your receipts."

All of this is clearly laid out to discourage people from claiming compensation by making them jump through loops and hoping that maybe they have disposed of the boarding passes.

HTB.

roybadami

Agreed it seems over the top in this instance.

Fo resetting the password on a miles and more account when you no longer have access to the original email address (for example) they absolutely should be taking these kind of precautions. For delayed baggage claims, it seems surprising that this is necessary.

hugolover

Crismyth

Isn't lufthansa based in the country that banned google streetview over privacy issues? Very strange practice. I'm filling two claims this week and will not comply if they request it. Had quite enough of them.

hugolover

Exec_Plat

Unless the terms of a ticket require this, Id tell them to pound sand. Then sue.

It seems odd to me to ask 'hey is this a real policy?", in response to a policy that they are applying retroactively or without a contractual/legal basis- and when people confirm "yes that is their new policy' the response is "Oh, OK- just wanted to be sure"

Like "Oh, the policy says I need to send my child to them? OK, just wanted to be sure it really is their new policy...I'll send the kid straight away"

I dont care if it IS their new procedure...its not MY new procedure...