False email moving quickly, major airlines receiving customer reports.
The scam is an email that appears to be from an established airline company thanking the recipient for purchasing tickets through their website. The email provides a user login and password, and also displays the amount to be billed.
An invoice is attached, which claims to be the purchased tickets, but when opened, it leads to over 30 pages of meaningless characters.
A representative from Northwest Airlines, which was the supposed airline in the scam KHTS received, said that they have been inundated with calls regarding this type of scam.
The email itself seems to be of little threat, but the problem comes when a response is sent to the sender.
The reply is sent to what looks like a legitimate source with the airlines web address, but the Northwest representative says the email is rerouted to the scammers website instead of theirs.
The scammers will then ask for credit card information to verify the correct account, according to Northwest.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center offers a few tips to help avoid potential scams:
- Don't trust a site just because it claims to be secure.
- Beware of providing credit card information when requested through unsolicited emails.
- If purchasing merchandise, ensure it is from a reputable source.
- Promptly reconcile credit card statements to avoid unauthorized charges.
- Do your research to ensure legitimacy of the individual or company.
- Never purchase anything advertised through an unsolicited email.
- Don't open spam email. Delete it unread.
- Never respond to spam as this will confirm to the sender that it is a "live" email address.
- Have a primary and secondary email address – one for people you know and one for all other purposes.
- Avoid giving out your email address unless you know how it will be used.
- Ensure a site is secure and reputable before providing your credit card number online.
For more information on how to avoid this and other potential scams click here .