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A backlog of cancelled flights and customers desperate to rebook travel arrangements could be a field day for scammers.
London’s Heathrow Airport experienced a day-long outage last week after a fire at a nearby power station, causing flight delays and cancellations – British Airways was forced to cancel more than 500 flights alone.
Now, while authorities investigate the aftermath of the fire and how it impacted Heathrow’s operations – one aviation executive called the incident a “clear planning failure” – others are warning of opportunistic scammers looking to exploit travellers inconvenienced by the outage.
“The outage at Heathrow airport that estimates at least 1,350 flights cancelled could be a breeding ground for a wave of fraud,” Nikhita Hyett, general manager at Signifyd, told Cyber Daily.
“While airlines are dealing with rebooking flights, fraudsters will be trying to abuse the situation and book flights with stolen credit cards, request chargebacks, and break into loyalty accounts.
“Customer service can expect a steep increase in calls in the upcoming days, and airlines cannot afford to rely on manual processes under these circumstances. They need technologies that automate elements such as fraud screening to reduce false positives and flatten fraud approval and chargeback rates. These efficiencies can then free up employees’ time to focus on customer service as the most important thing.”
There have already been reports of scammers impersonating airline representatives and offering to rebook flights.
“The Heathrow power outage has obviously caused a huge amount of problems for passengers and airlines. It’s also an opportunity for scammers to try and trick stranded or distressed passengers,” James Dodsworth, senior manager for financial crime at Thistle Initiatives, said in a LinkedIn post.
“Please be very wary of messages or other contact that purport to be from airlines suggesting you can rebook. Hearing a lot of noise about false messages for rebooking on flights that just don’t exist, looking like they come from airlines directly, and they are scams.”
What to do if you’re a victim of a scam
Situations such as this can be upsetting. If you, or someone you know, needs help, we encourage you to contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636. They provide 24/7 support services.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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