The date: September 25, 2021.
The place: Bethany Beach, Maryland, while on a weekend vacation with family.
My assignment: Book a round trip flight for my wife who would be travelling the following week; she was running errands that day so I assumed the task.
The story: My wife has credit with Alaska Air due to a postponed flight during the depths of the pandemic last winter, so naturally I turned to its online site to make arrangements with the intention of using that credit for payment. Simple enough, but neither my wife nor I had written down her Alaska Air password or the “credit certificate” identifying number and PIN, so I decided to call for help instead of continuing online.
Somehow, I ended up with a company pretending to be Alaska Air. Alaska Air has only one phone number but I ended up with a different “toll-free” number. Illegitimate travel agencies sometimes masquerade as a hotel chain or airline or cruise company, and Google makes it too easy to fall into their traps by putting their paid ads at the top of any relevant searches. I knew that, but thought nothing of the 877 number I ended up with. After the fact – after I realized I’d been scammed – I did a search for the full 10-digit number I had been routed to and was surprised that it did not belong to any travel agency. It belonged to no one, actually. I don’t know how I ended up with this number, but I’ve since read about “pop up” numbers linked to virus-infected laptops, so maybe this is what happened to me.
Well, a person answered the phone and asked for my travel plans and I explained our problem – I had my wife’s itinerary on Alaska Air sorted out, but did not have her account number or details of her “credit certificate.”
No problem, we can help you, sir! The agent asked for a lot of details (and asked for my phone number in case we were disconnected) and asked for my wife’s phone number as well so that he could call her to authorize my right to make a flight on her behalf . He said he would just call her and then call me back, which is how we proceeded. It all sounded like he was being careful - he was, but to protect himself, not me.
But there was a wrinkle. The agent got in touch with my wife all right, and called me back (but was using a 201 area code this time with an odd Caller ID name – a huge red flag I ignored), and he said he could not access my wife’s credit balance. I believed him when he said nothing could be done further and agreed to pay by credit card for the itinerary, which was $492. There was nothing suspicious about the amount – that’s what the “Saver” fare showed me online, as well.
Yet, after ringing up that total (which took inordinately long, another red flag I ignored) the agent told me that the return flight was not available at the Saver rate, so I’d have to pay extra for that portion of the itinerary, which would be an additional $195.02. That was the price differential between the two classes my wife would be flying, he said. It was odd – 45 percent extra just for (possibly) a better seat on the return flight only – but I agreed, my thinking being that airlines often have fluctuating rates. This was yet another red flag I ignored.
Then the agent informed me that I would be seeing two separate charges from Alaska Air on my credit card statement but not to worry; additionally, the confirmation from the airline might take a day or two to come in, but not to worry about that either!
Yeah, more red flags, of course.
I became suspicious only when I checked my credit card statement online for “recent” transactions the next day and saw two separate bills marked Alaska Air, complete with their actual logo in each case, except one had small print appended to the statement with the words “Other Travel.” That was for the $195.02 charge. Further, my wife did not receive any confirmation from the airline itself, nor did I, so she called the airline and got a real Alaska Air agent. The real agent informed her that they had only charged her for the correct $495 fare and that there were no additional charges at all. Moreover, they never send two bills to a credit card company for the same itinerary, and they do not sell a round-trip with two different rates, i.e., you’re paying for the same class both ways.
Then we knew. I’d been scammed. I immediately called the credit card company and said I was protesting the $195.02 Alaska Air “Other Travel” charge and the agent informed me they would have to cancel my credit card and issue me a new one. This was a clear-cut case of fraud, not merely a dispute with a store or service provider. The card number now was in the hands of some very bad people. I understood.
I’m sure the $195.02 charge will be cancelled and the scammers will not be paid, but I also believe the phone call with the fraudster was recorded. This is why the fake agent asked my “permission” to make the charges. In the unlikely event of a criminal investigation, they will edit the recording to eliminate any lies they told me to make me think I was dealing with an actual Alaska Air agent, but will still have me agreeing to payment. As it is, the credit card company likely will do no more than cancel the charge, and the fraudsters will move on to their next target.
I receive a daily “inspiring quote” from an online mediation site and a recent one read, “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.”
Yep, that’s about it.