Trying to Change a Flight? Don't Fall Victim to a Travel Scam

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In the middle of a glorious family vacation to Greece earlier this month, I was tempted to extend our stay — our first big trip since Covid. So I googled the customer service number for the airline and clicked on the number at the top of the search results.

Attempting to make flight changes while admiring the sun setting over Mount Athos and keeping an eye on your small children swimming in the Aegean turns out to be ill-advised. The chaotic summer of 2022 is proving to be a great one for travel scammers, as I was about to discover.

A representative answered at once (which alone should have made me realize something was amiss). He took some personal information, along with my booking confirmation number, and said it would cost about $150 per ticket to change our flights. I knew I had booked a ticket that allowed for changes, but he insisted I had to pay a fare difference.

I decided it was worth it, and gave him my credit card information. Seconds after hanging up, I had a sinking feeling. My fears were confirmed when I received a typo-filled email from 'Phill Brook' at 'support@ticketsupportdesk' a few minutes later. I called my credit card company immediately — fortunately, they had already declined the charge.

Scams like these, where third parties pose as airlines or hotels and charge bogus fees, are nothing new. But this summer is particularly advantageous for bad actors.

First, there's pent-up demand. That means lots of travelers to target, many of whom haven't gone anywhere in a while and may be a little less savvy than they once were. In addition, airline delays and cancellations for US carriers are the highest they've been since 2014 (excluding 2020), according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. So