TEEN ALLEGEDLY MADE $150,000 HACKING AN AIRLINE WEBSITE (HERE’S HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET SCAMMED)

BEWARE!!!

It seems like 2015 has been the year of hacked airlines. Earlier this year 1,400 planes were grounded in Warsaw after hackers attacked the computers of LOT Polish Airlines. And United was allegedly attacked by Chinese hackers back in August, though the carrier wouldn’t confirm it. Now, a 19-year-old man in China allegedly stole 1.1 million Yuan (about $150,000) by hacking into an unnamed airline’s website, the People’s Daily reports.

According to Yahoo Travel, the teen stole booking details for 1.6 million ticket orders. He then defrauded money from hundreds of customers by texting them that their flights had been canceled. He asked people to re-book flights and pocketed the “change fees.”


He was reportedly arrested last month by police after several complaints. The name of the airline hasn’t been released, but according to Yahoo, officials say the hoax has cost the company around $12,000 in customer compensations. Perhaps this mystery airline should take a cue from United and invite coders to find bugs in exchange for mileage rewards.

Meanwhile, let this be a warning to travelers to always be extremely careful when giving out personal information. Here are a few tips to avoid getting scammed in similar situations:

• Under no circumstances will a real travel company ask for your personal information via text message; if you get a text asking for your credit-card number, it’s a scam.
• Similarly, if you receive a voicemail asking for your personal information, it’s a scam.
• There has been a hotel scam going around lately, with scammers calling hotel rooms and pretending to be the front desk. An airline or hotel will never call you to ask for your personal information because your room or ticket has been canceled due to circumstances out of your control.
• Nor will they ask you to confirm your credit-card information because there was a problem with your card. If your card didn’t work, your reservation never would have gone through in the first place.
•  If someone from an airline or hotel calls you and asks for personal payment information, don’t rely on the number that appears on caller ID to confirm the call is real. It’s best to look up the official phone number of the company and call them back.

COURTESY: USA Today.