How a misdial could have cost a consumer hundreds

NBC 5 Responds to a Mansfield consumer offering fellow travelers a heads up: double-check the customer service phone number you dial. One wrong digit could have cost her hundreds of dollars.

Read on for what happened and the information to file away before your next trip.

REACHING OUT WITH A QUESTION

A couple of days before a planned getaway, Sam Holland got on a call to ask her airline a question about checked bags.

Holland said a person who answered her call asked, “Can I have your name and do you have a record locator?”

Holland provided the information. She said the person on the line told her there was a problem with her upcoming travel: her seat on the plane was confirmed, but her husband’s seat was not.

“You have to pay an additional $900,” Holland recalled the person saying. “I'm just trying to make sure that when you get to the airport, you've both got your seats.”

Holland looked at the reservation she booked directly through the airline’s website and could see an e-ticket number for her husband. She also knew she paid.

“It threw me for a second,” said Holland. “Then I thought, this can't be right. I hung up.”

Holland said the same person called her back from a different number, “I just want to make sure you understand if you don't pay for this seat, then when you get to the airport, your husband's going to be on standby."

Holland told NBC 5 she asked a question, “I specifically said to him, ‘Are you a scammer?’ He said, ‘No, I've got all your flight information here."

Holland never gave the person money. She looked, again, at the number she dialed.

“I have American Airlines stored in my phone. I thought that was the American Airlines number, but what I came to realize, after the fact, was that I was a digit across,” Holland said.

Holland said she doesn’t remember exactly when she stored the number or where she found it. She could see it was close to, though not the correct contact for American.

“THEY’RE WAITING FOR PEOPLE WHO ACCIDENTALLY MISDIAL”

“Scammers will typically find a way to get a phone number that's very close to the company's phone number. If it's an airline 1-800 number, they'll get a number that's one digit off and they're waiting for people who accidentally misdial the number,” said Matthew Wilshire, assistant regional director for the Federal Trade Commission’s Southwest Region.

The FTC calls this an imposter scam. According to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel, consumers reported losing $0.883 billion to imposter scams in 2019. In 2023, consumers reported losing $2.668 billion.

Wilshire explains there’s an explosion of them over the last five years as technology makes it cheaper and easier for someone to pretend to be your airline, bank or anyone you do business with.

“They might be reading from a script that is very similar to what you might hear from a typical customer service representative, but they begin to change where they start pressuring you to take action immediately,” Wilshire said.

Wilshire said it’s the common thread among different types of schemes: someone pressuring the consumer to pay quickly.

AVOID IMPOSTERS

It may not start with a phone call.

“They're also creating fake accounts on social media,” said Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy.

If you’re trying to reach an airline on social media, Henderson said make sure the account responding to you isn’t an imposter.

You can double-check on the airline’s website. American Airline’s website links to official social media accounts. We see other airlines share this information on their home pages too.

If you’re searching for a phone number, use the one published on the airline’s website. Especially during bad weather or busy travel periods like spring break.

“When we're stressed, when we're panicked about getting on a flight, we sometimes make poor decisions. You just want to really check yourself, take a breath, take a beat and make sure you're following proper protocol,” said Henderson.

NBC 5 Responds shared the phone number Sam Holland dialed with American Airlines.

A spokesperson tells us, in part, “We will not tolerate scammers taking advantage of our customers, and will pursue action against any who attempt to do so. Customers can report any suspicious activity and we will investigate.”

The spokesperson also said, “Customers who need assistance with a current or future reservation can make changes, add special service requests and redeem trip and flight credits by finding their reservation at aa.com or through the mobile app. In addition, customers can chat with us through the mobile app.”

We reached out to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing for any information consumers should know about confirming customer service contact information for a business.

A Google spokesperson writes, “While there are bad actors who attempt to circumvent our protections, Google’s systems are highly effective at surfacing high-quality information and fighting spam, scams and malicious behavior across Search.”

“When airlines share an official support number, our systems surface this information through a dedicated feature. We also provide easy-to-use tools like About this result to check the trustworthiness of sources on the web and encourage people to be cautious and double check the sites they visit,” added the Google spokesperson.

Consumers can look for three dots next to the search results and click on “About this result”. It provides additional information about the website and why it appeared in your search.

You can flag spam web pages to Google here. Consumers can report misleading or incorrect information on Maps here. Businesses can use this page to report third parties misrepresenting their business on Google.

A Microsoft spokesperson tells NBC 5 Responds in an email, “We recommend using caution when interacting with businesses online and to report any suspicious content via Microsoft-Report a Concern.”

TAKE YOUR TIME

Holland said she hopes her experience helps other customers recognize a problem before they’re taken for a ride. She is also guarding her record locator information unless she’s sure she’s talking to the right company. That record locator, along with her name, gives a stranger all the information they need to find her flight itinerary.

“I know the days leading up to going away, you're doing your checklist and you're rushing through to get everything ticked off, but sometimes takes time,” Holland said. “If people are asking you for money when you know you've paid, it's probably a red flag.”

If you gave money to someone in a scam, the FTC said it’s important to act quickly to try to stop the transaction. If you paid via a wire transfer from a bank account or credit or debit card company, contact your financial institution. You can read more tips from the FTC here.

NBC 5 Responds is committed to researching your concerns and recovering your money. Our goal is to get you answers and, if possible, solutions and a resolution. Call us at 844-5RESPND (844-573-7763) or fill out our customer complaint form.