Avoiding fake scams this travel season | FOX 13 Seattle

Published: Sep 02, 2024 Duration: 00:03:12 Category: News & Politics

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This Labor Day, millions are headed to airports across the country, with today expected to be the busiest day of the holiday travel weekend. >> Yeah. And fliers. Hannah. They aren't the only ones that are busy right now. Heather Sullivan reports on the scammers targeting travelers you need to be on the lookout for. >> You know, I've been reporting on these fake airline scams for more than a year, but after the CrowdStrike outage that caused some airlines to have to cancel a lot of flights, these fake airline scams have had a resurgence. In fact, these are all tweets I've received from fake airline accounts. So here is what you need to watch out for. Headed for the airport? Don't get duped when travelers tweet at airlines for help with flights that are canceled or delayed. The Federal Trade Commission warns that scammers continue to pounce with fake airline accounts. Watch this I tweeted at Lufthansa for help with a canceled flight. The real airline account responded right away, but so did eight fakes asking for my name. Flight info, phone number and WhatsApp number. The red flags, the fake accounts were all just opened this month. >> People who are trying to get your credentials are using it to generate money. So they're they're trying to generate whether or not, you know, a new credit card, a new loan. They're selling your data online. >> Cybersecurity strategist Paul Keener says travelers looking to book flights also continue to come across links and phone numbers that lead to fake airlines. Irina says that she and her family were trying to buy tickets to fly to their uncle's funeral. She says she called the Tampa airport and was given a number for frontier Airlines, Frontier Airlines. One (800) 432-1359. >> He automatically knew. He knew the flight number. He knew the time where we were going to be flying out, flying in. So I was like, fantastic, let's go ahead and book this. >> But when Amaris and her family arrived at the airport, they discovered their tickets were fake and they missed the funeral. The Tampa airport has now removed that phone number. >> If you think that you've been compromised by one of these scams, let's say you've you start getting emails that look suspicious or there's a weird activity in your bank account immediately call your bank. Don't wait until the next day. Call them right then and there. And I want to show you a quick trick to make sure that you're really talking to the real airline. >> When you tweet them, just hit that verify. This shows you verified accounts. Look for that check mark that makes sure that it is the real airline that you're talking to. Also, be sure that you're downloading the app for the airline. Find the phone number for the airline in the app or on their actual website. That way, you're making sure that you're calling the real airline. And also, if you do get a message from someone saying that there's a problem with your flight, it's been canceled. Whether it's an email or a text, do not respond directly to that message. Instead contact your airline

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