Scammers are taking to the skies, posing as airline customer service agents

Scammers are always looking for new ways to target vulnerable people. Now they're taking to the skies.

The scammers are now lurking on social media, looking for posts from upset travelers dealing with flight cancellations and delays, and posing as airline customer service agents, the Federal Trade Commission warned in a recent alert.

"Most people can probably agree that there are few things more frustrating than airline delays or cancellations that leave you stranded at the airport,'' the FTC said. "Whether the issues are the result of an unprecedented event like the Crowdstrike glitch that grounded thousands of flights worldwide, or more common disturbances like weather delays, desperate travelers often turn to social media for help from the airlines."

"Opportunistic scammers know this, and they’re re lurking behind fake accounts trying to steal travelers’ information," the FTC continued.

"The scammers ask passengers for a slew of information, like their booking confirmation number, phone number, or bank account,'' the FTC said. "Or they send passengers to a spoofed site that harvests their personal information and use it to steal the passenger’s identity or rack up charges on their accounts."

Cybercrime is the 'fastest growing crime'

"Cybercrime is the fastest growing business on earth," Eric O'Neill, a national security strategist at NeXasure, a cybersecurity firm that offers advisory services, told USA TODAY.

O'Neill has predicted that by 2026, the cost of Dark Web cybercrime will exceed $20 trillion.

"In terms of GDP, that is #3 in the world and bigger than Germany and Japan put together," he said. "Cybercriminals have emulated the best in the business—espionage agencies (AKA spies)—to launch deceptive attacks that gain the trust of their target so that the criminal can coerce them into handing over their most sensitive data with a smile."

Cybercriminals "have mastered the art of inserting themselves into a crisis," O'Neill said, and that included the Crowdstrike outages, which caused flight delays and cancellations. "They use deceptive and impersonation attacks that prey upon a target’s fears or desire to believe a thing to be true."

"During the CrowdStrike crisis we saw countless scams where criminals would use imposter attacks that pretended to be airline support, crowd strike support and various pretend vendor support to assist a target in escaping the crisis," O'Neill said.

Scammers target people seeking help on social media

Scammers have tried to target people who use social media to try to engage an airline for customer service before, said Jason Rabinowitz, co-host of Flightradar24’s AvTalk Podcast. Flightradar24 is a global flight tracking service that provides real-time data on thousands of flights.

Rabinowitz had a series of posts on X in October highlighting fake accounts pretending to be airlines.

"This has been going on for a while now, and it doesn't seem to have gotten better," Rabinowitz told USA TODAY. "The only real change since then is that a number of airlines have given up on Twitter as an official channel altogether."

But more airline passengers than normal turned to Twitter, now known as X, during the Crowdstrike glitch because the technical hiccup left some airline websites and apps inaccessible, Rabinowitz said.

"Scammers were definitely trying to take advantage of this, replying to unsuspecting passengers while posing as the airline,'' he said. "One of the best tips to avoid being scammed is to always verify the authenticity of the account responding to you. Do a quick Google search to make sure it’s really the airline’s support account, and watch out for tricks like substituting a 1 for an l."

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Tech support imposter fraud is common

Tech support scams are a common go-to for cybercriminals, beginning with an email or text alert that targets information that has been compromised or identified on the Dark Web, said O'Neill.

"When the victim calls for assistance, the criminal sitting in the dark web call center walks them through a process to install a helper application on their device,'' he said. "This download grants control to the attacker, allowing them to dateline information, lock the device with ransomware or load other malicious software."

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Tips to protect yourself from airline rep scammers

Here are some more tips from the FTC for what to do when you have a travel issue and to avoid getting re-routed to someone impersonating an airline employee.

Contact the airline's customer service directly through the airline's official app, website, chat or phone number and log into your account.

• Speak to a customer service representative in person if you are at the airport.
• If you go through social media, make sure to find the airline's official social media page on their website. Look for a verification symbol or badge. Never give out personal information on social media.
• If someone stole your personal information, go to IdentityTheft.gov to report it and get next steps. Report imposters to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
• Visit FlightRights.gov to learn about the airline passenger protections you are entitled to, or to file a complaint with the Department of Transportation if you feel an airline is not treating you fairly.

O'Neill also said "consumers must treat communications from the Internet or cold calls or texts to their phone as potential threats.

"I routinely teach that we must regard these communications from a trust last, verify first mentality,'' he said. "Before investing in a scheme, agreeing to tech support from a stranger, responding to the email with that fortune that looks too good to be true, pause, take a moment to investigate, and uncover the scam. If something looks too good to be true, in a world captured by cybercrime, it is."

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include consumer news on Fridays,here.