Scammed by a fake UA call center {Consoldiated}
Feb 20, 2019, 1:59 pm
#106
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
As discussed in the earlier thread, the scammers use a unique phone number for each carrier. this allows them to start the conversation -- "Are you calling about an issue with your United flight? We at the Support Desk can help you with your United travel issues."
Note they never stated they were United but 9 of 10, thinking they called United in the first place, would continue to think they were talking to UA personal -- but the scammer is clean in the sense they made no representation to be United. It is ugly and deceitful but easy to let "the mark" assume away.
Note they never stated they were United but 9 of 10, thinking they called United in the first place, would continue to think they were talking to UA personal -- but the scammer is clean in the sense they made no representation to be United. It is ugly and deceitful but easy to let "the mark" assume away.
Safe Travels,
James
Feb 20, 2019, 2:09 pm
#107
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
Programs: CO, NW, & UA forum moderator emeritus
Posts: 35,432
I swear there was a thread almost identical to this a couple of months ago. That fraudulent TA seems t
have a familiar name.
ETA: Indeed, I found several review sites with listings for flightszoom:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/flightszoom.com
https://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/a...ation-website/
https://stoppingtravelscam.blogspot.com/
have a familiar name.ETA: Indeed, I found several review sites with listings for flightszoom:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/flightszoom.com
https://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/a...ation-website/
https://stoppingtravelscam.blogspot.com/
Feb 20, 2019, 2:09 pm
#108
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: 66,857
Not defending the practice but those leaping to the claims of fraud need to understand what these "clever" folks actually do.
Feb 20, 2019, 2:24 pm
#109
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Regardless of whether they claimed to United on the phone or not, if they did post an ad claiming to be United that in and of itself represents material misrepresentation and fraud. More than enough to get the chargeback if you want, or to press civil/criminal charges in the UK, USA or elsewhere as the case may be. In addition, their failure to disclose whom they are is borderline legal. I'm not sure how the UK advertising standards and/or Ofcom would have to say about this but given how liberal EU law is, I suspect a case could be made there. By the email provided by the OP themselves, it seems like the company is doing very little if anything to represent that they are anything other than UA.
Was the trip in fact cancelled by them? If so, then yes there was some consideration made by the company (i.e. they pressed a couple of buttons to cancel the res in return for the hefty fee they collected - easy work if you can get it I suppose). Again, a lot of this boils down to whether the TA misrepresented themselves either online, over the phone or via email. I suspect the OP will find enough evidence to certify beyond a reasonable doubt that there was some fraudulent misrepresentation involved.
Safe Travels,
James
Was the trip in fact cancelled by them? If so, then yes there was some consideration made by the company (i.e. they pressed a couple of buttons to cancel the res in return for the hefty fee they collected - easy work if you can get it I suppose). Again, a lot of this boils down to whether the TA misrepresented themselves either online, over the phone or via email. I suspect the OP will find enough evidence to certify beyond a reasonable doubt that there was some fraudulent misrepresentation involved.
Safe Travels,
James
Are you a lawyer with relevant expertise/experience?
Feb 20, 2019, 2:31 pm
#110
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: South Carolina
Programs: UA LT Gold, American Kettle, Hertz #1 Presidents Circle, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 927
I surprised you used google to get the United's number. The only time I do that is when I'm trying to find the number of a local business. For major businesses, I go directly to their web sites and reference the contact information.
As a business traveler I also keep the numbers of both reservations and customer service for a variety of hotel, airlines, car rentals, etc. in the dialing directory of my phone.
As a business traveler I also keep the numbers of both reservations and customer service for a variety of hotel, airlines, car rentals, etc. in the dialing directory of my phone.
Feb 20, 2019, 2:45 pm
#111
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Houston
Programs: UA Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 12,693
This is quite embarrassing for me, I'm normally very vigilant and never fall for these kind of scams.
Recently I needed to re-book the return leg of an international ticket. Instead of checking the UA reservations phone number from their website, I did a Google search for "united reservations number". I guess these scammers somehow managed to temporarily get a ranking for this specific search phrase. It showed the phone number (855)387-0231 on the top snippet of the search results.
Recently I needed to re-book the return leg of an international ticket. Instead of checking the UA reservations phone number from their website, I did a Google search for "united reservations number". I guess these scammers somehow managed to temporarily get a ranking for this specific search phrase. It showed the phone number (855)387-0231 on the top snippet of the search results.
Feb 20, 2019, 2:51 pm
#112
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,161
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...
Feb 20, 2019, 3:19 pm
#113
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: China
Programs: OZ*G, Nexus, APEC
Posts: 122
no evidence of that has been posted and having seen similar ads where that just state " Need to change your United flights, Call the Support Desk" --no UA logo was used either. These folks walk a careful line and let the caller make unwarranted assumptions.
Not defending the practice but those leaping to the claims of fraud need to understand what these "clever" folks actually do.
Not defending the practice but those leaping to the claims of fraud need to understand what these "clever" folks actually do.
However, they did display the text "To ensure delivery of this e-mail please add [email protected] to your address book or approved senders list. See instructions for adding us to your address book." which I think implies that the email was sent from [email protected].
Furthermore, they also displayed the United Airlines logo in the email, which links to https://www.united.com/ when clicked. What's interesting about this is that external images are blocked by default in my Gmail settings. I normally have to click a link to display them. It appears they found a way to bypass Gmail's block of external images and loaded the logo image. I think they might have done this by hosting the image on Google's server, which maybe isn't considered an "external image".
Here is the html source of the logo in their email.
I'm not a lawyer, but this does seem like this could be considered fraud. Not that I would try suing them over $200 anyway, but I might have a good chance of winning my charge-back case based on this.
I didn't think so, but based on some of the replies here I now think that it probably was.
I surprised you used google to get the United's number. The only time I do that is when I'm trying to find the number of a local business. For major businesses, I go directly to their web sites and reference the contact information.
As a business traveler I also keep the numbers of both reservations and customer service for a variety of hotel, airlines, car rentals, etc. in the dialing directory of my phone.
As a business traveler I also keep the numbers of both reservations and customer service for a variety of hotel, airlines, car rentals, etc. in the dialing directory of my phone.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 20, 2019 at 3:25 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
Feb 20, 2019, 3:32 pm
#114
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: 66,857
As for the UA logo, it appears that is part of a true message from UA they have included --- it is a message UA issues ( with the comment about whitelisting UA's email) when you request a copy of the itinerary) -- just another part of the deception, They just let "the mark" connect the dots and draw the desired assumption. Standard con-artist practice.
Feb 20, 2019, 4:00 pm
#115
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: All of them, UA-Plat, 1MM*G
Posts: 881
Your credit card company will almost certainly cancel the charge. First, they understand what is going on with these skirt-the-fraud-laws scammers, they deal with these type of guys everyday. But the key is that the credit card company has no interest (or obligation) to do business with them. So they will cancel the charge and let the bank that established the credit card billing arrangement with the scammer deal with it. Further, the only way the charge will be reinstated is if the scammer crawls out of his hole and provides the credit card company with extensive documentation and affidavits about how up-and-up they are. There is no way that such fly-by-night guys will choose to follow this likely fruitless path. Rather, they will forfeit the revenue from the charge and shortly reappear with a new identity and set of phone numbers.
Feb 20, 2019, 4:59 pm
#117
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: 16,856
I’d like to see a major airline using the full might of its legal department to go after these guys.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:16 pm
#118
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Colorado
Programs: UA Gold (.85 MM), HH Diamond, SPG Platinum (LT Gold), Hertz PC, National EE
Posts: 5,656
For kicks I called the number OP provided but it’s no longer in service. Total scam. I have zero tolerance for crap like this and have no issue using every resource to see people like this brought to justice.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:22 pm
#119
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: PHL
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, Marriott Gold, IHG Platinum, Raddison Platinum, Avis Presidents Club
Posts: 5,271
I think you are on pretty firm ground with the credit card company. You paid for a service "ticket change" and did not receive the service. In fact, you have to pay it again (to the real UA). I think that alone should be enough. Add in some details about the fake number, I think it will be obvious to the credit card company what is going on.
Feb 20, 2019, 5:24 pm
#120
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Did the OP pay to change or to cancel? AFAIK Op didn't yet know the desired rebooking date, so it was an exorbitant $200 just to cancel, which is not the same as getting the remaining credit after a change.