A United Airlines customer was scammed for over $17,000 after calling the airline’s official customer service line. The man was attempting to rebook a flight for his family and asked to make a large payment that would later be refunded.
After investigating, United confirmed it had a record of the passenger’s call, but that it only lasted for 13 minutes, whereas the passenger said he had been on the line for over three hours and has the phone records to prove it.
United Customer Scammed After Calling Official Number
As reported by 9NEWS, Denver-area father Dan Smoker was informed by United that his outbound flight from 
Denver International Airport to 
London Heathrow Airport ahead of an 18-day European summer vacation had been canceled. Consequently, he called United’s official customer service number and was initially connected to a female agent. At some point, Dan was transferred to a male agent called “David,” who told him he would need to place a large down payment of $17,328 on his credit card to secure a rebooking.
This charge was to be fully refunded, Dan was told, and he was then put on hold. However, the agent returned and informed him that the new booking could not be processed, but he would be put on a different flight via 
Newark Liberty International Airport. This new itinerary went through, and a confirmation email said the money would be refunded by early July. But when this didn’t happen, Dan took to social media to call out United.
Dan was eventually contacted by local news network 9NEWS, which investigated the issue and immediately suspected a scam. For one, the confirmation email did not come from United, nor did the credit card charge. The email was littered with formatting and spelling errors and came from a domain called “Air-Reservations,” while the credit card charge showed up on his statement from a company called “AIRLINEFARE” from Iowa. Dan said,
“The more I looked into it, the more clear it became that it was a scam via United’s system somehow. How that happened, I have no idea.”
Call Log Discrepancy
The puzzling part is that Dan shared his phone log with 9NEWS, and it verifies that he did call United’s official phone number. In some cases, passengers can be scammed by calling customer service numbers they found on the internet, but these are actually traps set up by scammers.
However, United’s call logs only show a brief 13-minute call, whereas Dan’s record shows over three hours and 16 minutes. Another important twist is that the phone number Dan was given in the fake confirmation email had called into United’s call center earlier that morning.
Dan’s credit card also has a record of charges from United made during the same call, and the fact he was put on new flights via this same agent shows that whoever was on the line had access to United’s system (or was working with someone who had access).
United Is Reviewing The Incident
A United spokesperson told 9NEWS that they are in touch with Dan and are now “reviewing the matter thoroughly.” However, Dan has stated that the United representative he is in contact with won’t be able to share the details of any security investigation with him.
There seem to be a few possibilities that explain what happened. The most likely is that the male agent put Dan on hold and then impersonated him during a call with a legitimate United agent to get the new flight booking while keeping the $17,000 charge for himself – this would explain why Dan was placed on hold for so long, as well as United’s admission of the phony number calling into its call center that morning too.
What it does show is the increasing sophistication of scammers, who can exploit the industry’s growing reliance on digital systems to swindle customers and airlines. For example, the TSA’s PreCheck program has seen a wave of scammers trying to exploit travelers by creating fake websites for enrollment.
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