Loyalty program fraud is a major issue, and it can come in many forms, including having miles stolen. That brings us to a very amusing interaction taking place on social media, and I know who I’m siding with…
In this post:
Influencer confronts person over stolen points
Becca Alves, who goes by the username Petitevagabond across social media platforms, covers a lot of points topics. A couple of days ago, she shared how her Alaska Atmos Rewards points were stolen:
Imagine my surprise when I wake up today with emails from Alaska, saying a bunch of miles have been redeemed on flights from Belize-LAX.
It wasn’t me. So I’m like ok let me go cancel them – I did.
But obviously I googled the names and this influencer and her daughter come up?? And they’re from LA and currently in Belize???
This has to be a glitch because there’s no way this person with hundreds of thousands of followers would risk it all for some free flights.
RIGHT?????
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She was respectful, and didn’t name the person at first. She tried emailing and DMing her, but didn’t hear back. So she then posted the itinerary, with the names of the passengers.
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I guess the public shaming worked, because the person who was being referenced then responded to the email. However, she didn’t actually provide any explanation, other than claiming “we are also victims in this situation after being targeted through social media,” and “as a result, my information has been compromised.” However, that doesn’t actually address the questions that were asked?
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After a lot of pressure, the person finally responded publicly, writing the following across several posts:
I’m not sure why this was taken to the internet when I was actively sending my receipt. The claims being made are inaccurate.
This feels less about clarity and more about creating attention, which is disappointing. Posting this publicly was unnecessary and comes across as an attempt to be messy and damage my name.
I don’t usually feel the need to explain myself, but I won’t allow misinformation to be spread!
Cyberbullying especially when directed at a child’s page is unacceptable. I don’t see any justification for targeting a child or attempting to turn this into public harassment. This crosses a line.
I’m disappointed this has turned into a spectacle. I would never allow anyone to tarnish what we have worked so hard to build. My focus has always been integrity, respect, and protecting my family.
It’s truly unfortunate to be placed in this situation, especially as a victim of someone compromising my personal information. I paid full price for my tickets, and I would never jeopardize my reputation over something like this. I take integrity very seriously!
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However, despite claims of “actively sending receipts,” Becca claims she never got the receipts.
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My take on this influencer social media melee
It’s interesting to see the replies to these social media posts. A vast majority of people seem to be siding with the person who had points stolen, while some number of people are asking why she’s doxxing someone, etc.
Personally, I think Becca is going about this quite respectfully. She gave the woman a chance to respond in private, and she didn’t. But now she’s doubling down in an absurd way:
- If you say you have the receipts showing that the tickets were purchased legitimately in the first place, then post them; don’t write about how you’re “actively sending” them, but just do it, especially if you’re claiming that you don’t want misinformation to spread
- It’s absurd that this person is accusing Becca of cyberbullying a child; that person chooses to have her daughter be part of her social media presence, and that doesn’t mean the child is being bullied in any way, and it doesn’t give the mother a free pass for bad behavior
Obviously I can’t say with certainty what happened here. What I can say is that people don’t accidentally end up having tickets booked for their vacation out of someone else’s account… that’s just not how that works.
I don’t think this person is some sort of evil hacker. Instead, I’d speculate that the most likely explanation is that she just purchased discounted tickets through a third party or consolidator, and may or may not have known that those tickets were booked using stolen points.
Honestly, I think the right thing to do here — and what would make the accused person look best — would be to just own up to what happened (if it’s as I suspect), and it can be a lesson for others. “I thought I was just buying a discounted ticket through a consolidator, and didn’t realize that was booked using stolen points.” I think it’s much better to own up to something like that than to outright deny it, without offering up any sort of explanation.
I’m curious if this is actually the end of the confrontation, or if there’s more to come…
Bottom line
A points influencer noticed that points had been stolen out of her Alaska Atmos Rewards account. Fortunately she caught it quickly, and even had the names of the passengers… only to realize that one of them is an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers.
She tried to confront her privately, but didn’t end up hearing back until making her identity public. However, that person has been in full-on denial mode, even accusing the other person of cyberbullying. However, she has stopped short of publicly proving her claims.
What do you make of this interaction?
The same thing happened to me three weeks ago. My Atmos reward points were used. I decided to simply call the Atmos Elite/MVP Elite line so they could take care of the situation. The part I don't understand is why didn't Becca do that and contact Alaska Atmos Customer Service?
The fact same thing happened to me three weeks ago. My Atmos reward points were used. I decided to simply call the Atmos Elite/MVP Elite line so they could take care of the situation. The part I don't understand is why didn't Becca do that and contact Alaska Atmos Customer Service?
I just had my Alaska miles redeemed without my knowledge, but was able to cancel them immediately. I am surprised how often this is happening to Alaska Airlines.
There are a lot of services marketing themselves as "concierge" travel bookers who deal in brokered miles and points. Let's just say that most of these don't ask too many questions where the points they bought came from, and there is a whole industry on the dark web selling hacked accounts.
If you're buying from one of these services, you should assume you're buying stolen goods. And you probably knew that based on the price...
There are a lot of services marketing themselves as "concierge" travel bookers who deal in brokered miles and points. Let's just say that most of these don't ask too many questions where the points they bought came from, and there is a whole industry on the dark web selling hacked accounts.
If you're buying from one of these services, you should assume you're buying stolen goods. And you probably knew that based on the price you paid.
This is why I don't deal with any sort of brokered points, ever.
Ben - Alaska has been dragging its feet for months and years about MFA. There are hundreds of cases of fraud and they do nothing to help. Please reach out. That other article posted shows while most airlines have FF fraud, Alaska is by far the worst.
There is a lot more to this I think.
I did a bit of a deep-dive investigation on this where I found and logged all 265 AS hacks I could find this year. Check it out here:
www.noseyparker.org/p/alaska-airs-infamy-265-accounts-robbed
I hope it adds to the debate.
My first reaction is to wonder why this played out on social media at all? Seems like a phone call to customer service would be the expected way to resolve the problem. My second reaction is to wonder why this is newsworthy for this blog? There's no useful information to take away from this post.
I find it extremely newsworthy because alotta of Lucky's readers have significant mileage stashed away. The victim is lucky that the alleged thief has a presence online & can be shamed.
"Actively sending?" What a fake.
My take - they are BOTH in on the 'scam'. To increase their social media presence.
Get together, let's create some drama, I will accuse you of doing this, you will reply, some of the blogs will pick it up and publish it, our social media presence/followers/potential advertising revenue will soar when people read it online and then check out our accounts.
Then we will post it was all a big misunderstanding.
I also had Atmos points stolen this month! For a hotel in UK for a same night reservation. Crazy how the person was able to check in under my name! AS/Expedia has not been helpful at all. Going so far as to claim the property "confirmed that you stayed at the hotel and extended your reservation during the period in question." WTF? It's an insult to my intelligence. And this is after 1) AS/E told...
I also had Atmos points stolen this month! For a hotel in UK for a same night reservation. Crazy how the person was able to check in under my name! AS/Expedia has not been helpful at all. Going so far as to claim the property "confirmed that you stayed at the hotel and extended your reservation during the period in question." WTF? It's an insult to my intelligence. And this is after 1) AS/E told me they would refund the miles and 2) I emailed the hotel and told them to call the police and they did. "I have informed the local authorities. The reference number is 142 of 7th December. If you need further assistance, you can call Dorset Police at 101" F**king unacceptable Alaska.
I’ve been on the receiving side of having points stolen and used for unauthorized redemptions twice in the past year on multiple US airlines.
In both cases someone had a distinctive enough name that it was not hard to find them on a social platform and send and inquiry. I sent some feelers out to them, assuming they didn’t know tickets were booked fraudulently. One seemed to have no idea anything was amiss and the...
I’ve been on the receiving side of having points stolen and used for unauthorized redemptions twice in the past year on multiple US airlines.
In both cases someone had a distinctive enough name that it was not hard to find them on a social platform and send and inquiry. I sent some feelers out to them, assuming they didn’t know tickets were booked fraudulently. One seemed to have no idea anything was amiss and the other was surprised and trying to figure out what happened with the airlines.
Besides the whole experience sucking so bad I ended up in the local newspaper police log for one of these, I think there’s a spectrum of awareness of where “deals” are coming from with the ticket buyers. I’m sure some know it’s too good to be true and don’t ask questions but I think some players here are just scamming people both ways.
Just wish it was easier to find the people at the root of it all.
Shocked that a community with no social, economic or other value would do this
The influenza vitis is turning on itself. What a twist!
Plot twist. Two influencers come up with a plan to get attention and more followers.
I wonder if she's considering getting the police involved. She has all the evidence for a detective to investigate.
Also, how many billions of miles get stolen every year? Seems like low hanging fruit imo.
Report it to the police in Belize? Yeah, right...
The solution is simple FF programs: 2FA. Let me select an option on my account. Once selected, they text or email me a six digit code I must enter to do anything with my miles or reservation. It seems a low cost app/website change fir the airlines that would probably cost less that the work hours spent on dealing with such things.
American already does this if it detects unusual behavior: they'll send a code to your email to confirm your login.
And, if they don't, they should be responsible. I believe the presumption legally should be, if they don't use 2FA, they sc€rwd up.
Atmos doesnt have that option even:))
I think we all thought the person who is accused of stealing the miles was scammed, but based on the way they are behaving, I think the only logical conclusion is that they were somehow in on it. It doesn't mean that they themselves stole the points, but they seemingly do not want to share where they purchased the flights from (she claims to have paid full price but does not say from where she...
I think we all thought the person who is accused of stealing the miles was scammed, but based on the way they are behaving, I think the only logical conclusion is that they were somehow in on it. It doesn't mean that they themselves stole the points, but they seemingly do not want to share where they purchased the flights from (she claims to have paid full price but does not say from where she purchased the flights). Maybe the owner of the sketchy travel agency that books flights with stolen points with huge discounts is a friend or relative or maybe she is being scammed but won't own up to it because doing so threatens her lifestyle (ie. if this "travel agent" has offered her a "special deal" of 70% off flights just for you because you're super special but you can't tell anyone about us) and she can't afford to fly as much as she wants to if buying tickets through legitimate channels.
I agree she was in on the scam. Those who play the victim card are usually guilty.
The person who had their miles stolen tried to handle it discretely at first and was ignored do they had to dial up the pressure.
It is illegal to sell or buy points. If you buy a ticket from a third party using points - so are just as responsible as the person who stole them.
Illegal where? Sure it is a violation of terms of service, but I doubt there is any law regarding this in the U.S.
I just had my Atmos miles stolen too (maybe Atmos needs to get on the 2FA, eh?), and on the phone they told me the people who the reservations were under were likely also the victims of a scam, where they paid the person who stole my miles for their ticket (these scammers sometimes have phone numbers that are one digit off from Alaska's actual phone number).
Totally agree with you here that the...
I just had my Atmos miles stolen too (maybe Atmos needs to get on the 2FA, eh?), and on the phone they told me the people who the reservations were under were likely also the victims of a scam, where they paid the person who stole my miles for their ticket (these scammers sometimes have phone numbers that are one digit off from Alaska's actual phone number).
Totally agree with you here that the woman in Belize should have been way more forthcoming as her statements make it sound like she did steal the miles (and I'm really doubting she did -- but her response isn't great if she's innocent).
Wow, "public shaming worked." That's rare (especially in 2025). Also, maybe these companies should all incorporate 2FA for logins and major transactions as a standard, opt-out; and, if not, then it's on them when things go wrong, not on us. K, thanx, byyeee.
And here I thought that the lessons being taught to us from our leaders (you know, the ones all across the world) is that one is always the victim and there's no need to ever take responsibility for your actions.
But, uh, yeah, bought the tickets from criminals, it was caught this time, yay.
Sounds like the script from a ZioNazi playbook of playing victim.
...is penelope actually a genocidaire?
What part? What part of this discussion has anything to do with your anti semantic hallucinations ?
You would have felt right at home in the 1600 blaming Jews and witches for everything
Just curious, Mike, do you think AIPAC should be required to register as a foreign lobbying organization or are you cool with the status quo?
Gee, does AIPAC get funding from a foreign Government? That is the chief question involved and the answer is no.
Where is AS in all this? Ben, this would be a great time to use your pull and reach out to them. There must be accountability for some loyalty program's atrocious security practices and tendency to leave victimized members high and dry. Someday, someone is going to get physically hurt or worse in a confrontation incident like this.
Word.
Influencer on influencer violence…the only victimless crime