Call hijacked/ intercepted by scammers

[sobaymj]

This happened 2 days ago using Ooma. I called the American Airlines 800# (800-433-7300) to make a change to my flight. The call was intercepted by Flights4u.co or Flights4u.com. They said they work with American when they are busy to help with flight changes. It seemed very odd to me, but I went along anyway because I called American Airlines phone number. I ended up giving them my AAdvantage number, credit card number and Record Locator. They said it would take 24-48 hours to process.

I didn't know they were Flights4u until they emailed me. They said I had to agree to the changes in the email. I agreed that I was asking American Airlines to change my flight.

They proceeded to cancel my flight and charge me $137 multiple times to Flights4u and multiple $81 fees to American Airlines.

As soon as I got off the phone, and after the emails, I knew I had been scammed. I called American again and this time got through to the American Airlines automated system. When the actual American agent called me back they created a new AAdvantage number for me and reinstated my flights. The agent said they saw where a 3rd party had canceled my flight through the American system.

I locked my credit card online and then called them. They saw all of the weird charges, blocked them and are sending me a new credit card.

I should've listened to my gut initially, but since I called the American number, I thought it was legitimate.

Again, I use Ooma and can confirm in my call logs that I called the correct number.

I called the number again today and was intercepted again by the Flights4u.co or Flights4u.com scammers. I called him out on it and he hung up on me. I then redialed and was connected to the actual American Airlines number.

I've seen others post in airline Reddits that they've had similar experiences. Many of them state that they use Ooma as well.

Do all Voip services have this problem or is it just Ooma?

0 Comments

Share

[Robek]

All non-VoIP services can have this problem. The caller's carrier cannot perform end-to-end authentication for any calls routed to numbers belonging to a different carrier, over the public switched telephone network. The network does not directly support that.