Scammed by a fake UA call center {Consoldiated}
#136
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.99MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,567
Also, I beleive a supervisor can move the itin to a new PNR.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 20, 2019 at 8:40 pm Reason: wrong word
#137
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike...
Programs: CO, NW, & UA forum moderator emeritus
Posts: 35,339
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.
#138
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
That being said, if the OP could report back as to whether UA has the capability to move the res to a new PNR it would be appreciated as I suspect this knowledge would be helpful in the future in a variety of circumstances.
Safe Travels,
James
#139
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.99MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,567
#140
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: BDL/NYC/BOS
Programs: UA/*A Gold, Global Entry, Marriott Plat, Hilton+IHG Gold, Hertz PC, DL
Posts: 1,751
OP, please relay as much of this info as possible to UA corporate security. i'd mail print-outs of everything you have, simply because i don't trust that an outsourced CSR will successfully relay your info to WHQ.
#141
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: UA Plat 2MM. DL Plat, AS MVP
Posts: 12,745
Has anyone else tried calling the number the OP shared? I was looking forward to having a little bit of fun at the scammers expense. But alas, the number is busy
#142
Join Date: May 2012
Programs: Delta Plat, UA Plat, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 258
I don't know if you covered this yet, but I would advise you to cancel your credit card and get a new number + change as much access to your UA account /security questions as you can. These shady companies probably store all this information and would sell it to the black market if they could. Anyway, chase is pretty cooperative in my experience with shady practice companies - they usually make me feel like they are on my side. Good luck and thanks for the info - I google phone numbers all the time and this post has made me realize my potential issues in the future!
#143
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
Scammers also collect inbound call numbers and use those as "live" for future scams. Unless you are lonely and want calls from scammers on a regular basis, it's not a good idea to engage any of them.
#144
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: USA
Programs: UA Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,162
Not only allowed but required if I want to use one of my certificates against a family member's flights. For practical purposes, I could provide family with my account number and password and let them do it themselves but 1) I don't give anyone my passwords, even family and 2) doing that is a breach of TOS. Any time I call the travel agency or UA themselves to change my travel, I have to provide the booking code.
I would note that archives of past conversations helped me out when I was stranded in Singapore Airport. I had to call UA to get my travel reinstated due to missing my connection (forest fires in Sumatra closed 4 or 5 of their airports) and my cell phone wasn't working in the airport. The only way I was finally able to contact UA without leaving the airport and entering Singapore was to search online for a non-toll-free phone number for UA customer service and I found it in archived chats (probably FlyerTalk itself although I don't remember that detail).
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.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 21, 2019 at 1:33 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
#145
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,176
And, for that matter, the number to call is (800) UNITED-1 -- (800) 864-8331. Just in case someone does come across this thread and needs it.
#146
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: USA
Programs: UA Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,162
For future reference, both Skype and Google Talk allow calls to US toll-free numbers at no charge. You can reach the main UA numbers anywhere you can find WiFi access.
And, for that matter, the number to call is (800) UNITED-1 -- (800) 864-8331. Just in case someone does come across this thread and needs it.
And, for that matter, the number to call is (800) UNITED-1 -- (800) 864-8331. Just in case someone does come across this thread and needs it.
#147
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,131
#148
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
Also, give me an hour at any airport, and I'll come back to you with at least 10 different paper boarding passes that were abandoned.
Then again, a whole worldwide industry has relied for decades on the simple LAST NAME/PNR combo, and changing that would have enormous complications, costs millions of dollars and take months if not years.
I've become more and more convinced "Corporate Security" doesn't do much as long as it's not something that costs the company money (not specifically UA). Here you could argue UA's reputation is on the line, but is it really, and would that keep people from flying with UA, and is it worth it to go after a scammer in a foreign untouchable country vs going after hidden city violations and certs bartering?
#149
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Los Angeles / Basel
Programs: UA 1K MM, AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 26,903
#150
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
TBH I think the real culprit here is not so much the travel agency but rather Alphabet Inc., willing to take a quick buck without concerns of having their users scammed because they know those users can't avoid Google in the future.
I do not believe this travel agency popped up above UA in the organic search results. It did so in the paid ads results, which appear on top of the organic results.
Google did have the chance to not accept this ad for this specific search query, instead, Google happily pocketed the money and placed the clearly misleading search result on top of the legitimate search results when their user relied on them for accurate information, enabling the scammers in what they do.
I highly doubt this is the first documented case, and I highly doubt Google isn't aware that it is happening.
I do not believe this travel agency popped up above UA in the organic search results. It did so in the paid ads results, which appear on top of the organic results.
Google did have the chance to not accept this ad for this specific search query, instead, Google happily pocketed the money and placed the clearly misleading search result on top of the legitimate search results when their user relied on them for accurate information, enabling the scammers in what they do.
I highly doubt this is the first documented case, and I highly doubt Google isn't aware that it is happening.