One of her researchers, who sent a message to Wizz Air’s official account to ask if the flight had been delayed, received replies from the two fake accounts “almost immediately”.
“Both used almost identical language, apologizing for the inconvenience, stating that they had ‘already escalated the matter to the appropriate department’ and asking for a ‘WhatsApp number to reach for assistance’ via DM. [direct message]”Which one?” he said.
“We found examples of fake X accounts impersonating every major airline operating in the UK,” the organization said.
“We’ve also found that fake accounts often respond faster than real airlines, but they also interrupt existing conversations between you and airlines, which can be harder to detect.”
Flagging fake accounts
Scammers usually ask for the customer’s last name and the airline’s booking reference number. They may also directly request other personal information such as the passenger’s name and residential address.
Who? said that reporting X’s fake accounts “seems to have limited success,” with most of the posts and accounts he flagged remaining active.
He advised travelers to verify the account is genuine by checking the official website link for when X joined and how many followers he has.
Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “Unscrupulous fraudsters are brazenly attempting to deceive airline customers who seek urgent customer service advice through X in stressful situations such as delayed flights and lost luggage.
“Great Britain has been gripped by a fraud epidemic, so Which? wants the next government to appoint a dedicated fraud minister and make the fight against fraud a national priority.
“X and other social media platforms need to be held to a high standard and Ofcom must not shy away from taking strong enforcement action, including fines, against businesses if they break the law.”
Jake Moore, global cyber security advisor at antivirus company ESET, said travelers should check carefully before responding to social media accounts asking them to hand over personal information.
“Since most real business accounts respond to negative posts on the platform in a very similar way and suggest a private DM conversation, fraudulent accounts can simply take advantage of this modus operandi and simulate it with ease and conviction,” he said.
“Check Real Gold”
“Therefore, people must continue to do their homework and investigate any account they come into contact with before handing over any sensitive or financial information.
“This can be done by clicking through from the official website, checking the real gold brand and looking at the follower numbers for an initial indication.”
X, formerly Twitter, has been contacted for comment.
EasyJet, Jet2, TUI and Wizz Air said they were reporting fake accounts of Company X and advising their customers to only engage with official social media profiles.
British Airways has also been contacted for comment.
Almost caught by Kenyan scammers
John Arnold, 49, came close to falling for one of the scams described by Who? in his research.
After being denied boarding at Gatwick Airport on a family holiday three weeks ago, he took to X/Twitter to vent his annoyance with the airline.
“I got something like an official response: ‘We’re very sorry, it’s at the staff’s discretion. If you want to file a complaint, fill out some forms and you might be able to get some money back,” Arnold said.
“Then I got a couple of phone calls saying, ‘We’re going to deal with your complaint, we’re acting on behalf of EasyJet’. And I thought it just didn’t look right,” he added.
The scammers called Mr Arnold from a Kenyan number and asked him to sign up for a money transfer app to receive the promised refund.
They invited him to download a money transfer app and put his bank details into it – but when he smelled a rat, he stopped talking to them at that point.
“When I looked into it, it was very clear that the Twitter pages that were pretending to be these EasyJet supervisors were not EasyJet at all.”