Calls to customer service rarely begin happily and are typically a frustrating struggle against an automated system to get a human representative on the line. One Denver man found out the hard way that sometimes the person on the other end of the line isn't always who they claim to be. He lost $17,000 while rebooking a family trip to Europe with United Airlines. It might sound like a familiar phishing scam, but the victim called United's official customer service number.
Dan Smoker nearly had an 18-day
vacation derailed after his family's first flight from Denver to London was canceled. According to KUSA, he called 1-800-UNITED-1 the next day. Smoker spoke with a female customer service representative before being transferred to someone named David. He promised to rebook Smoker, but the flight's $17,000 cost would have to be charged to his card before being refunded later. The new itinerary was booked, and he received a confirmation email that it could take up to 50 business days to process the refund.
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United Airlines Is Looking Into How Smoker Got Transferred
The vacation came and went, but the refund never arrived. It quickly became clear that Smoker was scammed, but how the scheme was pulled remains a mystery. Reviewing the call logs, United noted that the airline had a 12-minute call with Smoker. However, he says he was on the phone for three hours with the Chicago-based carrier. David's real identity is also a mystery as his contact phone number on the confirmation email is a dead end. David's number also called United on the day of the incident. It seems like David pretended to be a United rep to Smoker and Smoker to the airline. This does raise the ultimate question: how did Smoker get transferred from United's customer service center to an alleged scammer?
United Airlines is investigating the incident, and Smoker hopes that the airline will cover the lost $17,000. While this is the first known instance of United putting the financial safety of its customers at risk, CEO Scott Kirby had to publish an open letter to its customers reassuring their safety in the skies last year after a spate of incidents. One incident featured a wheel falling off a Boeing 777 taking off from San Francisco and bouncing a path of destruction through the employee parking lot. Running an international airline isn't easy, but it shouldn't be this eventful.
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