Fascinating: How The Fake Airline Phone Number Scam Works

This happened to a family member of mine for about $330 to change an AF award. This lead to a months long battle with Amex to issue a chargeback not believing it was a fraudlent travel agency. I put blame on the credit card companies not holding these scammers liable.

Rather than scammers (they are definitely scammers) its easier to consider them shady travel agencies. Pretty difficult to dispute the charge since they usually do what you want them to do, just at an unreasonable price. The careful ones never say "This is the Delta Reservations Desk," just "This is Reservations, what is your name and confirmation number?

The scammers profit by having your cc number. They will use it to buy a ticket for someone willing to send them cash.

is this kindof similar as the fake sites that 'process' visas for inflated fees when they can just be done directly on govt websites? theyre basically charging a fee for something you dont need to pay them for, but that would possibly be enough to not have credit card facilities removed

About three years ago I had a UA ticket that included flights on LH.
At some point after making the reservation and before flying I had a question for LH. I googled their phone number which seemed legit with an 888 prefix. The person at the other end of the line told me I would have to pay an extra $300 to remain in business class as the aircraft for this flight had been downsized. They were correct that the aircraft type was smaller vs when I first booked. Since I kept questioning why he wanted me to pay extra for a flight I had already paid for he switched me to a supervisor. I was then told I needed to pay extra just to ensure I could get on the plane. I told him this was BS and hung up the phone. Returning to the googled site I saw the number I dialed was under "sponsored". Finally got the correct number and called LH. They took down all of the info for their fraud desk but where it went I do not know. I now pay more attention if I have to google a phone number.

For the United Airlines $17k scam, my understanding the passenger actually called the United Airlines phone number (no mistakes) but then the United agent forwarded him to the scam phone number (since the United agent fell for the phone scam after googling a phone number.) From the passenger's perspective, he didn't do anything wrong.

I have reported many posts from scammers on United’s facebook posts where the scammers pretend to be United Customer Service (but obviously aren’t) are responding to people with complaints. Facebook always say those posts don’t violate their terms of service. Amh

Singapore Airlines changed their U.S. phone number ( https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/plan-travel/local-promotions/media-centre/230227AdvisoryonSIAUSreservations/) but some travel blogs that provide instructions on how to book partner tickets never updated their number. Scammers have claimed the old number and if you call, they try get you to book a ticket and run your credit card.

The scamming industry is incredible. I was just listening to a piece on public radio about how organized crime in SE Asia has built entire tech campuses—replete with cafeterias and dorms—for trafficked workers to staff call centers day and night. It's a true economic engine and the cash cow is largely unsuspecting Americans.

I like to think I'm savvy but last month, I could easily have been taken. Got an email supposedly from our renewable energy administrator saying they could no longer process payments directly with our utility because of new 2FA measures on the utility's website. They advised calling an 888 number to re-configure autopay. I double-checked the 888 number on Google and it matched, so I called and set up the new autopay using a credit card number.

Later I realized all of this could have been spoofed and the scenario was perfect for a scam opportunity. Turns out it was legit, thankfully!

I got scammed this way from PayPal's website. The "call us" button on mobile site puts a scam number into the phone dialer.

The correct number is 888-221-1161

Nothing that a smart munition couldn't fix.

Yes, I'm 100% serious.

These people know exactly what they are doing and deserve ZERO sympathy.

The blame falls squarely on the governments of the countries that allow this to happen.

Most turn a blind eye because of apathy or because they are profiting from the scams.

First world countries should be treating this as a national security threat and act accordingly.

There’s actually a threshold around 1% for chargebacks that payment providers have to stay under.
If a merchant exceeds that, Visa, Mastercard, or the acquiring bank can shut down their account.

However, some payment providers (or aggregators) process payments for many merchants under one umbrella.
They can mix high-volume legitimate merchants (who have very low chargeback rates) with scam merchants, so the overall chargeback percentage stays below the threshold.

I am a victim of this scam. Had a JAL booking for family. Needed to change flight for nephew. Googled JAL phone number and someone answered claiming they were JAL. Gave them all my booking information and after couple call backs I was told it would be $600 to change flight. The return phone calls were coming from Dallas area code. I stupidly gave my credit card details. They continued to call back saying they were having trouble locating my bookings (three separate PNRs). The light finally went on in my brain and I realized this was a scam. I blocked the phone number, called Chase canceled the card. The real JAL did not charge me to change flights. Lesson learned!!

what ive read about someone who got scammed by them and did a chargeback, they actually fight the chargeback claiming that they "provided service and assistance" to the passenger, therefore the $1900 charge was for this.

"These people know exactly what they are doing and deserve ZERO sympathy."

Well, no, a significant portion of the workforce in those campuses are people who were trafficked from developing countries after being told they were going to do entry-level office work for AI and tech companies.

And as to smart munitions waxing an entire campus of thieves, sounds very Sharia to me. But I know for most conservatives, capital punishment is just for just about any transgression. The party of stable geniuses.

I almost scammed myself recently. I needed to call Southwest about changing a flight, and I mis-remembered their phone number as 800-IFLYUSA. The actual number is 800-IFLYSWA.

The scammer answered the phone as "customer service" without saying Southwest Airlines. I gave him the name and confirmation number. He said he needed to put me on hold to check on the change. After a long time on hold the line went dead. It was a points booking and I guess they couldn't figure out a way to make any money off me.

I realized my mistake when I called back and got a completely different recording. Be careful when dialing those numbers.

I suspect this would be less of an issue if airlines (and other companies, ftm) didn't absolutely bury their contact phone numbers on their website. "Contact Us" merely shows email, AI chat, FAQ, etc. and rarely their phone numbers. You really have to dig.

I find it quite easy to find phone numbers on the majority of airline websites. Peoplw Google numbers and when you call scammers they have a menu and message saying thank you for calling. Please select option .. they don’t open with the name of the company and a large number of people tend not to listen to the first few words. A real airline will always open “ thank you for calling abc airlines “. Additionally when providing payment card details in Europe / UK you must never give them to a human due comply with PCI. You are transferred to an automated system.

@Santos
Amusingly, Florida is also home to massive scam call operations. This was exposed as far back as February 2024 ( https://www.nbcmiami.com/investigations/south-florida-call-centers-linked-to-multi-billion-dollar-medicare-fraud-scheme/3241179/) but apparently nothing has actually been done about it:

https://cbs12.com/news/local/fbi-investigates-surge-in-impersonation-scams-targeting-south-florida-residents-miami-dade-broward-palm-beach-county-ic3-internet-crime-complaint-september-23-2025
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOKAAutDjHU/?hl=en

I realize the latter is an instragram link, but the guy has made it a personal mission to track down scammers like this and has exposed multiple scam operations in the past, so I consider him trustworthy here.

Yes, the endless appeals with Amex are indeed frustrating. Hope you were eventually able to get it resolved.

If it feels 'off,' don't proceed. Don't give away anything. Don't pay. Hang up. Check the numbers.

One way to avoid this would be for airlines to make their processes so simple that nearly all requests can be done online without ever having to call... but, by default, they want to skirt the rules, delay refunds, etc., so ultimately, you have to call a lot.

Wish this were better.

Andrew out there pew pewing her cell phone, saving the day!

Timely post. I got a call today from someone purporting to be an Etihad concierge and am still not sure whether it was legitimate. In fairness, I had just booked an F ticket yesterday and had received an email about the First Concierge. But I just didn’t feel comfortable giving any further details over the phone without being 100% sure. I’m probably paranoid after hearing about all these phone scams!

Imagine trying to take care of an elderly and impaired loved one who has been scammed.

The hours, the stress, the cost to try and resolves the situation.

I can assure you, after the first few smart munitions, the dynamic will change.

The airlines facilitate the scammers on overseas flights when your confirmations etc., only have a toll free US number. The toll free number won’t work when you call from overseas. You then try madly to search the internet for a regular number you can call - and what you find under the airline name is a scammer number. It happened to me. The upside for the scammer is an inflated change fee or new ticket charge

It's not just developing countries.
In Myanmar/Cambodia centres (often run by Chinese) there are plenty of Taiwanese, South Koreans and Japanese who have been kidnapped and enslaved.
The total number is estimated as 120,000.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw076g5wnr3o

@Andrew H. yes, we bombed countries with all kinds of kinetic warfare for the last 100+ years and we stopped all conflicting dynamics. This is all that's left to be dealt with.

This guy makes Mantis look like Einstein

The former SQ reservation number in the US has been hijacked by scammers, and my sister in law fell victim to it. After calling the number to check on upgrades and getting “upgraded” for quite a bit of money, she realized the scam and canceled the transaction with her credit card company. The scammers canceled her entire reservation in revenge. SQ was able to reinstate the booking, but it was down to the wire just a couple of days before departure. Very stressful for everyone.

That NPR story you mention was also thoroughly covered in a recent “Criminal” podcast. Even the scammers (typically young Asian women) are scammed to come work for the scamming companies, and as a result more or less become hostages themselves.

Okay, how many of you called the UA scam number just to screw with them?

I purchased a delta ticket for round trip travel for my aunt. She called "delta" to reconfirm her itinerary a few days prior to her outbound flight and reached a scammer. The scammer convinced my aunt that she was only waitlisted on her confirmed return flight and that she needed to change to the next day. The next day was about $70 cheaper. When she told me what happened I got on the phone with Delta. We tracked the ticket numbers and corresponding mco credit vouchers. They booked a same day ticket for somone random unsuspecting passanger partially using the mco credit voucher.
Net gain for the scammer was max $70.
I assume they follow up and if the passanger goes along with the scam they make additional changes liquidating all the ticket value.

There's a huge thread on reddit about this, and everyone agrees the victim didn't do anything wrong. The victim's local "on your side" media claims that United admitted that the scammer called in. Some have suspected the United rep was in on it and merged the two calls. It seems United changed its story to it being a complete accident

Scammers almost always set up merchant accounts using fake or stolen identities. Once they receive the victim’s funds, they withdraw them immediately. When the chargeback is approved and the victim is refunded, the scammer’s merchant account is already empty, leaving the payment processor with the loss. The account then goes negative and is flagged as fraudulent, leading to its termination and blacklisting across payment networks. Any linked accounts or identities are also investigated and frozen if found, but since the scammers used fake information, recovery is rare, and the funds are effectively gone

Indians! watch You Tube and Indian Scammers try to con innocent senior citizens out of their Life savings and "celebrate".most of the scammers are Former H1B visa holders that know the in & out of US Citizens.
Thank you President Trump for making it harder for these Basta***.

most of the scammers are Former H1B visa holders that know the in & out of US Citizens”

Any source for this? Or is it something you just made up?

How was the actual number hijacked by the scammers?

Except these phone scams also exist in first world countries as well.

I almost got scammed last week. Typed in unitedairlines.com and noticed it’s not united website.

I was able to quickly find the local (typically toll free) number for UA and AA on their website. DL was a little more of a challenge. I needed to call AA from both France and the UK about a future trip and got the right local number quickly.