We love when our readers come to us to expose wrongdoing.
It’s helped to toss people in jail. Get new laws passed. And it teaches us all important lessons about scams, fraud and how to protect ourselves.
Sometimes, mistakes happen, but there can still be plenty of lessons to learn in those cases.
Let’s dive into one of them.
One of our longtime readers — we’ll call him Cal — thought he uncovered something big.
“I have what I think is a huge story for you involving airlines and travel agents,” he wrote. “I’d describe it as at least a scam, possibly a felonious one.”
Cal wanted to book a flight from Newark to Key West, Florida using mileage on his airline-affiliated credit card.
He called the number on the back of his card — or so he thought — waiting on hold for 40 minutes. When a representative came on the line, Cal went over the flight he wanted, then asked how many miles he had to use toward the purchase.
He was put on hold. After 10 minutes, the rep said he had 25,000 miles. Cal didn’t think that was right, but he went with it. He asked how many miles the trip would cost.
Another 10 minutes on hold.
When the rep came back, he said it would be 160,000 miles.
Savings opportunity foiled, Cal realized. He paid the $850 cost with his credit card.
But when he looked at his credit card statement, he saw an additional charge for $207.10 for something called “Airline Services-NY.”
What was that for?
“I was flabbergasted, but then I was livid that I was connected to a travel agent after calling the number on my credit card,” he said.
Was it possible the airline used travel agents to handle overflow calls when the regular call center was busy, and customers were being charged extra? Or could a legit airline representative be running a side gig, hoping to slip extra charges past unsuspecting customers?
If either was true, that would be a huge deal.
Cal disputed the charge on his credit card. The fraud department told him it gets complaints about unexpected travel agent charges on a regular basis. It isn’t just the airline Cal uses, he was told.
Next, he called the airline. It cancelled and rebooked the flight, this time using his miles. (He actually had 175,000 miles, and the flight cost only 28,000 miles.)
Then it got weird.
His phone rang. It was the person who booked the original flight for Cal.
The caller was angry. He claimed to be a legitimate travel agent, so why was Cal disputing the charge?
“You’re a crook, and there’s no way you’re getting this money,” Cal told the rep.
But Cal was confused. How did he end up in the clutches of a “travel agent” in the first place?
Our first question was about the number Cal dialed. He insisted it was the one on his credit card.
“I never Google a phone number,” he said. “I’m not comfortable searching online because I worry about scams, so that’s why I always look carefully for the number on my card.”
He’s right to be wary. Shady businesses often impersonate big-name companies. They place online ads that are misleading at best and come up high in searches for the real company name. It’s easy for consumers to miss it.
We saw it happen with the Carrier Clinic’s Blake Recovery Center, which is regularly ranked among the best substance abuse treatment centers in the country. Impersonators often use the facility’s name in Google ads — even though they have nothing to do with the treatment center — hoping to snare vulnerable people into their facility instead.
That’s why Cal thought there was something nefarious going on with his airline.
We asked the airline to investigate. While it did, we called the number for the travel agent that appeared on Cal’s credit card statement.
“We are the global consolidators with the airlines. We help you with reservations and exchanges,” the rep said, passing over our question about the company’s name.
We asked if they take overflow calls from busy airline call centers.
“Once there is a huge call volume with the airlines…” and then the connection went silent — as if the line was muted.
When we asked if he was still there, he said: “We handle the reservations and resolve the issue or concern ASAP.”
What do they charge for their services?
“No. No charges from us, Miss. It’s just the difference of what you pay for a flight,” he said.
“We are for the new reservations and exchanges for passengers for the airline ticketing. We are the third party who helps the agents.”
We asked where they are located. Albany, New York, he said.
What’s the name of the company? He said he couldn’t tell us, so we asked for a supervisor.
A man who called himself “Manager Kevin” came on the line, and we explained why we were calling.
“It is a travel agency. Not for overflow calls,” Manager Kevin said.
He wouldn’t give us the company name either.
We hung up.
“I’m just surprised — what kind of company doesn’t give a name of their company?“ Cal asked. ”And they deny that they charge money? It’s shady to say the least.”
We heard back from the airline. It had records of the call when Cal canceled and rebooked the flight with miles. But it had no record of the initial call, the one Cal said ended up with the travel agent.
So we asked Cal to check his phone records to see exactly when he made that first call to the airline so we could show the carrier.
His response?
“I haven’t felt this sheepish on the phone since I was in college and called my girlfriend to say I cheated on her,” he said.
We can only imagine how many shades of red his face turned when he shared his news.
Rather than calling the number on the back of his airline credit card, Cal dialed a number that was one digit off.
Fat fingers strike again.
“It was my screwup, and I’m sorry to have wasted your time,” he said.
But oh, this was absolutely not a waste of time. It may not have been a giant conspiracy involving one of the world’s largest airlines — which we are not naming here because it’s done nothing wrong — but Cal’s experience is another important lesson for us all.
Just as bad actors take out misleading ads to trick consumers, they also take on phone numbers that are awfully similar to those of legitimate companies. If they secure a phone number that’s one digit off from the real company, it’s not all that hard to take advantage of customers who hit a wrong button.
Deceptive? For sure.
Cal did win his credit card dispute, so the $207.10 came off his bill.
“The only reason I’m not calling the (travel agent) guy back and offering to pay back the $207 is because he’s sleazy, I’m stupid, and those things cancel it out,” Cal said.
We’re not going to argue with that logic.
Safe dialing, Jersey.
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