xliioper

I would double check the email address you sent the response to. Many email readers only show the From: address and not the Reply-to: address (which, if present, is what is used when you send a reply).

smc333

Check the address you sent the message to in your sent messages folder. As was said above, there's a From: header that's used for display and a Reply-To: that's used when replying (at least that's how most mail clients work).

It's pretty easy to spoof e-mails, but also pretty easy to rule it out, if you can read the e-mail headers.

smc333

To OP - if you do forward your message over, be sure to include your full e-mail headers. Google "<your mail client> display full headers" or something like that and you should find instructions on getting them. In Gmail at least it's the three dots to the right of the subject when you have a message open, then 'Show Original' from that menu. I don't remember any others offhand.

cjermain

The email had the following footer:

Random Person
Intl’ CTO Sales Representative

United Paseo de la Reforma 250, Planta Baja Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico 06600
Tel +52 (55) XXXX-XXXX Cel +52 (55) XXXX-XXXX [email protected]

You may not believe it from this thread, but I'm reasonably computer savvy. I sent a new email (not a reply) to [email protected]---and got a response. Being able to do that (respond to a united.com email) would make this more sophisticated than 99% of the phishing attacks out there. Doesn't rule it out, of course, but I'm not important enough for the Russian government to try to get my CC info.

narvik

UA has never contacted me and said I could pay LESS for an unpaid reservation. Why would they?

Scam.

cjermain

I'm actually hesitant to report this. In my mind, there are two explanations. #1 : a UA employee randomly tried to help me out, in sort of a head-scratching way. #2 : someone is running a really sophisticated phishing scam where they can respond to united.com email (this wold likely have to be someone inside UA, or who has hacked UA---or my machine is compromised... even harder to accept given I was using webmail). If it's #1 , I don't want to get that person in trouble.

mozilla

I also don't rule it out (can we ever rule it out?) but I find this all a very elaborate "scam", especially with regards to the goal of obtaining no more than 1 (ONE) credit card number. There are much easier and less time-consuming ways to do so.

Based on the information provided here, which is limited, I call LEGIT on this one, but I reserve the right to re-qualify to SCAM if OP provides a more complete picture. That being said, I'd still not give my CC over the phone, but that's just my personal policy of never doing that, and is unrelated to this specific case.

This isn't a refund or anything. OP didn't pay anything yet. So at this point, UA can entice the OP to pay for an - I assume - nonrefundable ticket, or risk that OP sees a cheaper fare with a competitor, never pays and exceeds the TTL. This looks very similar to the "abandoned cart" emails with a discount code you'll get from some (legit) e-tailers.

Maybe the published fare has actually gone $50 cheaper, who knows?

docbert

Sure, unless it's a UNlTED.COM email address, in which case it's absolutely a scam.

Did you catch it? Did you notice that the "I" (eye) in that was actually an "l" (lower case ell)?

I'm not saying it's not legitimate, but...

narvik

Don't beilieve UA would proactively call someone if that were the case.

mozilla

Yep, caught it. I think this particular OP would have caught it too. But it's a good point, united.com should be typed manually and not copy/pasted.

Could it be chalked up to cultural differences? This was also the case in the Air India story I linked above.

DenverBrian

If you do go for this, I'd go get a gift card credit card, load it with the $$ you think you'll need, and then reveal that number to the scamm-- er, United rep.

zoegksf

CDMX hasn't been called DF in quite a while.

They do have an office on the Reforma, and that number does sound about right. I would be very suspicious.

docbert

How do you have a reservation that you didn't pay for? FareLock, booked via a travel agents, or what?

The more I think about it, I can see that this could absolutely be legitimate. Many companies have systems that detect abandoned "shopping carts" on websites and then try and get you back. If you walked all the way through the booking process on the website and then canceled out (leaving the reservation but without then ticket) then having someone follow up to try and get you back - especially if the fare has dropped in the interim - would potentially make sense.

TonyBurr

DO NOT GIVE YOUR CC TO ANYONE OVER THE PHONE IN MEXICO. You are going to have a TON of problems. It is NOT legit.

cjermain

On UA.com, make the reservation, and then choose to pay at the airport or a ticket office. This typically gives you about 3-4 days to pay. Which again, maybe suggests that, as you say, I got on some list for having an outstanding reservation.