Scammed by a fake UA call center {Consoldiated}
Feb 20, 2019, 5:31 pm
#121
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: China
Programs: OZ*G, Nexus, APEC
Posts: 122
BTW, is it even allowed to go on the UA website and access someone else's booking?
Feb 20, 2019, 5:34 pm
#122
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,846
Feb 20, 2019, 5:38 pm
#123
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: China
Programs: OZ*G, Nexus, APEC
Posts: 122
For example, lets say that I'm sitting in a lounge and the person beside me is holding a print out of their itinerary. I glance over and see their name and PNR. Am I allowed to then go on the website and cancel their flight? I mean, yes, I can do that. But is it allowed?
Feb 20, 2019, 5:43 pm
#124
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,395
If you were to do that, you would be representing yourself as your agent to UA. If your question is, "does UA policy allow people to make changes based upon a misrepresentation," the answer is obviously 'no.' But since the policy isn't enforced on the website, I'm not sure what good that really does you.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:44 pm
#125
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,846
... For example, lets say that I'm sitting in a lounge and the person beside me is holding a print out of their itinerary. I glance over and see their name and PNR. Am I allowed to then go on the website and cancel their flight? I mean, yes, I can do that. But is it allowed?
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:45 pm
#126
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: China
Programs: OZ*G, Nexus, APEC
Posts: 122
If you were to do that, you would be representing yourself as your agent to UA. If your question is, "does UA policy allow people to make changes based upon a misrepresentation," the answer is obviously 'no.' But since the policy isn't enforced on the website, I'm not sure what good that really does you.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:50 pm
#127
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: China
Programs: OZ*G, Nexus, APEC
Posts: 122
Not sure what you mean by "allowed" -- you can do it and there is essentially no way to trace who did it(except by IP address which is not useful in many cases)
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:53 pm
#128
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,846
True travel agents can access via different means but an admin or travel coordinator at many businesses, just use the PNR access.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:55 pm
#129
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
I'm not so sure why this has become so complicated.
As soon as the call center agent represented himself as being with UA, when he was not, any fee the call center charged was subject to chargeback.
The rest is semantics.
As soon as the call center agent represented himself as being with UA, when he was not, any fee the call center charged was subject to chargeback.
The rest is semantics.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:59 pm
#130
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 129
There were sooo many signs that the original poster should have seen that this was not necessarily a scam but just an agent that was “hired” to perform something that the OP could have done on their own. The wolf cannot exist without the lamb.
Feb 20, 2019, 6:21 pm
#131
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Northern California
Programs: I want to be free! Free!
Posts: 3,455
Feb 20, 2019, 7:15 pm
#132
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,842
Not sure what you mean by "allowed" -- you can do it and there is essentially no way to trace who did it(except by IP address which is not useful in many cases)
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Feb 20, 2019, 7:27 pm
#133
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 592
This is a very helpful, but please edit your post to remove at least a digit or two of the scammer's phone number. Otherwise, it is possible that someone could accidentally use that number through a mistaken google search or google could actually increase the ranking of that number.
Moderators: perhaps you can make the edit.
I would leave most of the number (just star out a digit or two) so that people will be able to recognize the number is fake if they were trying to check it.
Moderators: perhaps you can make the edit.
I would leave most of the number (just star out a digit or two) so that people will be able to recognize the number is fake if they were trying to check it.
Feb 20, 2019, 7:43 pm
#134
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,156
This is a very helpful, but please edit your post to remove at least a digit or two of the scammer's phone number. Otherwise, it is possible that someone could accidentally use that number through a mistaken google search or google could actually increase the ranking of that number.
Feb 20, 2019, 8:22 pm
#135
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
Companies frequently place "ads" for themselves so that they can be above equivalent ads for other companies trying to take their business. eg, American puts in an ad for themselves when someone searches for "united airlines". UA then puts in their own ad for the same term so they appear above AA.
The fact it's an ad doesn't necessarily make it illegitimate - although obviously it should have you at last asking the question...
The fact it's an ad doesn't necessarily make it illegitimate - although obviously it should have you at last asking the question...
At this point I think it's safe to say that you cannot trust what you see on search engines like Google with even the trained eye being easily deceived. I suspect Google is aware of their issue but they lack the technical chops to address this issue all of the time because Adwords is a big black box and no one really knows how the algorithm determines what ad to place where - it's really a roll of the die.
Not sure what you mean by "allowed" -- you can do it and there is essentially no way to trace who did it(except by IP address which is not useful in many cases)
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
Such as Unauthorized flight reservation change made by someone else
This issue has been discussed many times and it is a needed feature for those that have others manage their travel. But it can be misused -- hence treat your PNR / BP with respect
And yes the scammers use this feature.
-James