After his Delta flight from JFK airport in New York was canceled, a traveler went viral on Twitter sharing an alarming scam story.
The Twitter user, Shmuli Evers, detailed his nightmare experience via a Twitter thread.
It all began when Evers’ flight was canceled. He Googled a phone number for the airline’s customer service since the in-person line was too long. Thinking he had reached Delta, he started the process of trying to book a new flight.
From there, the situation only got worse.
“After a minute, the line broke up, but they called me back… from the number +33-4-56-38-67-82 (French number that came up as DTI Publishing in Caller ID). First Red flag. He had a very strong Indian Accent (Red Flag) and was overly eager to help me,” Evers explained.
“By providing him with my confirmation number and name, he was able to look up my Trip information on Delta. He found an alternative flight from Newark, leaving later in the evening. But he needed me to confirm,” he continued.
The alleged customer service agent then texted Evers a screenshot of a flight from Newark Airport in New Jersey and asked Evers to confirm via SMS, which he cited as another “red flag.”
“He then asked me to call him, he said he has to cancel my original reservation, and I have to pay for the new one… this is when I asked him where he was located, he said Rochester, NY. When asking him where that is located, he said 2 hours South of NYC…” Evers continued, pointing out the geographical error.
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At that point, Evers told the man he did not feel comfortable giving any payment information over the phone due to hearing about “too many scams lately.” The man’s lack of alternative options confirmed to Evers that he was “dealing with a SCAMMER.”
“He wanted me to pay him 5 times the price of the original ticket cost… If he was really from Delta, he would have just booked me on that flight. I hate scammers,” Evers added.
Evers also pointed out that it seems like several other airlines have been affected by the same scam, since a number of airlines’ Google phone numbers seemingly don’t match up with the one listed on their website or app.