This article appeared in Moneywise. Thought the community might be interested.
Dan Smoker’s dream family trip to Europe turned into a nightmare—not because of a cancellation, but due to a call he made to United Airlines. After his initial flight was canceled due to mechanical issues, Smoker spent over three painstaking hours on the phone with United trying to rebook. He connected with an agent named “David,” who promised to charge for the new ticket, upgraded Smoker to premium economy and said the original cost would be refunded. A confirmation email followed — addressing refund timelines, oddly, from a non-United email. Months later, no refund had arrived. Upon investigating his credit card bill, he found the legitimate charges from United Airlines for Smoker's rebooked flight, along with another charge for $17,000 listed under the alias "AIRLINEFARE."
Scammed — but how? After consumer investigator Steve Staeger examined the confirmation email, he immediately noticed several red flags indicating a possible scam.
"I figured Dan had been taken advantage of, thought maybe he'd Googled a number for United," Staeger says in a WGRZ video, "but he didn't."
Both Smoker and Staeger confirmed using call logs that Smoker had called United Airlines' official customer service number, and the call log showed confirmed three hours he had spent on the phone were with United.
“The more I looked into it, the more clear it became that it was a scam via United's system somehow," Smoker said. "Now how that happened? I have no idea.”
On United's end, however, a representative told him the three-hour call connected with David was only in their internal call log for 12 minutes.
United confirms they logged several calls from Smoker’s number and have launched an internal review. However, the airline couldn’t explain how the call was transferred to the alleged scammer or why their own logs recorded a much shorter call duration. Smoker has filed a fraud report with his credit card provider while awaiting resolution.
“They have a system that people are supposed to trust,” Smoker said. “I trusted that system. There was no reason that I shouldn't have trusted that system, and I was scammed as a part of it.”
“We’ve been in direct contact with the customer to understand what happened in this case,” a United spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are reviewing this matter thoroughly. We’re committed to finding a fair resolution for him.” She did not answer any questions on how Smoker's call could have been redirected.
A broader rise of airline scams While Dan Smoker's case stands out as he was somehow intercepted or rerouted through United's offical line, it's part of a broader trend of scammers cashing in on airline cancellations. The urgency and panic that comes with rebooking a cancelled flight makes airline customers a prime target for phishing in scammers books.
Recent investigations by consumer watchdogs like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and AARP show how widespread the threat has become. The BBB issues frequent alerts about fake airline customer service numbers leading to billing scams, and reports via their Scam Tracker database note how even trusted sources like Google can populate fraudulent numbers that impersonate airline support.
Scammers often purchase top ad placement or manipulate Google search results to insert fake numbers at the top of your query—meaning customers often think they’re getting help, not pitching money.
AARP has documented similar cases, where frustrated travelers searching online for help ended up paying twice — once to the airline and again to a fraudster disguised as a booking agent. Scammers also exploit social media by replying to posts complaining about cancelled flights with phony offers of assistance.
How consumers can protect themselves Airline scams are evolving so quickly that even travelers who do everything “by the book” can get caught in the trap. The best protection starts with knowing what red flags to look for.
Experts warn that you should only ever contact an airline through its official channels, either the number listed on its verified website or inside the company’s app. Refund emails should always come from a legitimate domain like @united.com, never a generic address. And while it might be second nature to type “United customer service” into Google, that’s one of the biggest dangers: scammers buy ads or spoof listings to make fake call center numbers appear at the top of search results.
Even if you’re on the phone with someone who seems helpful, remember that real agents won’t demand you pay upfront for a refund or push you to make unusual financial transactions. If something about the interaction feels off — say, the call log shows a different length than what you remember, or you can’t get a case number — it’s worth hanging up and calling back through a different verified line.
Finally, timing matters. If you do see an unexpected charge, don’t wait it out. Contact your bank immediately, dispute the charge, and let the airline know what happened. Quick action often makes the difference between recovering your money and losing it for good.
By: Rudro Chakrabarti, Editor.
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Nimrod
| 4 replies
This is the type of story that makes me glad that I only fly for business travel. Fortunately the company I work for has its own travel department to handle such rescheduling when I cannot get a satisfactory resolution with the airline's customer service desk at the airport.
That is a possibility, but it could also be that the software of the call centre has been compromised. Not unknown for software developed at one company to be compromised before being sent to the company that ordered it. Doubtful that United develops their own call centre software. For all we know the company that provides it to them may be outsourcing the coding work to workers in India who added a little something to redirect calls that are left on hold too long.
Amazing and scary. This is why (well, one of the reasons why) I never use my phone number for 2FA, I always give an (alternate) email address. Any entity that absolutely insists on a phone # for 2FA doesn't get my business. BTW: The reason so many companies want you to use your phone # for 2FA is that they can get much more personal data on you that way. With a phone # it's relatively easy for them to track down your full name, home address, exact birth date and other bits of your identity that you haven't given them overtly. Our phone numbers have almost become second Social Security Numbers.
Thank you so much for this information. Your posts are always educational. Definitely going to change my 2FA process and go to an email address. It seemed so convenient to have that authentication go to my phone. Obviously convenient for scammers too! Cheers! :-)
I conducted a thorough examination of this post, and one particular detail drew my attention: the reference to an agent identified as "David." I assess that an employee at United Airlines may be collaborating with a scammer. This individual may have facilitated the transfer of the victim to the scammer, thereby removing the victim from the United Airlines system.
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