Airline Ticket Fraud: How to Spot a Scammer's Website?
We continue our series of posts about airline ticket fraud on the internet. Today we would like to tell you how to distinguish a scam website from a reputable online air ticket office. We were lucky enough to catch one of these sites "in action"; fortunately, they are shut down quite quickly, so this is an excellent opportunity to show you all the nuances with a live example. So, let's begin... 1. Never fall for huge discounts unless it's an airline promotion! Agencies, to increase demand, can dump prices, making them lower than competitors, but not by 30-40%. And airline promotions can be easily checked on the carrier's website or by calling them. And here's a clear example that should make you wary:
2. If the website raises suspicion, check the contact details: legal entity name, TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number), etc. Here's an example from one of the scam websites:
Let's ask Google if it knows anything about this organization:
Alas, no. For conviction, you can check the organization's name on the website www.allinform.ru - it contains a huge database of legal entities across Russia. Our test subject was also not found there. Upon checking the TIN, it turned out that the website belongs to a certain travel agency "Palych" from Nizhny Novgorod, and not LLC "Chip-Sale":
3. If you have suspicions, carefully read everything written on the website. Here, for example, is a screenshot of the "About Us" section:
And from the offer agreement:
These screenshots were taken on the same website. Note that each document specifies a different website name, and the "About Us" section has two company name variations. We highlighted these discrepancies in red. Such websites are opened and closed quite quickly, and many simply forget to change the old website's name to a new one. Why do many people hand over money to scammers? It is very difficult for an inexperienced user to identify the website of dishonest "entrepreneurs", especially since the flights and prices, without considering discounts, correspond to reality. You can compare them with other websites or even the airline's own website, and they will match. But let's not get distracted, let's move on to booking a ticket... 4. Pay attention to the contact email address. It can be stated with 100% certainty that no serious organization will use email on domains like yandex, mail.ru, gmail, etc.! Here's a clear example:
We tried to "book" a ticket on one of the scam websites; we didn't enter any data, just clicked "Book", and voilà, we managed to "book" an airline ticket for a passenger without a name, phone number, or contact details:
A ticket can only be booked with the passenger's first and last name!
5. Pay attention to the website name field in the browser. The page for entering contact details, and especially payment, must be protected by the https protocol. Here's how it's done, for example, on our site:
And here's how it looks on an unreliable website:
If the website appeared very recently, there's a chance they might even answer the phone... typically, in conversation, they say that the prices are special airline fares.
We can say with 100% certainty that confidential fares are only received by agencies that have IATA accreditation and a contract with an airline. The IATA license number can be easily verified. As a rule, "customers" are attracted not only by low prices but also by tempting conditions for airline ticket refunds.
Refund conditions do not depend on the agency that sold you the ticket, but on the airline and the rules of the specific fare! The airline, not the agency, refunds the money for the ticket, and the refund conditions will be the same for everyone, regardless of where you purchased the ticket.
