A 32-year-old woman in Bengaluru foiled a scam attempt when cyber criminals posed as agents of Indigo airlines and tried to make her pay around Rs 15,600. After a few questions, however, Mahasweta Pal, a resident of Koramangala, grew suspicious and called up the official helpline number of the airlines to realise that she narrowly escaped being cheated by scamsters.
Pal, a social media manager for Inqnest, had booked a round-trip Indigo flight to Kolkata and was shocked when on January 1 she received a call from a supposed Indigo agent that her tickets were cancelled. "The caller then proceeded to offer two options: immediate rebooking at the same fare or a refund of the original booking amount (Rs 15,600) within 24 hours," she told Moneycontrol. "This purported cancellation was presented as a fact, with no prior notification or explanation provided. The caller told me he could send me a link for repayment on WhatsApp."
Pal disconnected the call and immediately called Indigo's official helpline number to find out that her tickets were indeed cancelled but it was done by a third party.
"Initially, the Indigo support staff told me that I had cancelled the tickets and there was nothing that they could do except initiate a partial refund of the cancelled tickets and I received around Rs 8,000," she told Moneycontrol.
"But when I kept pushing them, they later informed me that someone had altered by information on their website. The customer service representative acknowledged inconsistencies in the cancellation details... My phone number and email id were different from what I had entered. This discrepancy strongly suggests unauthorized access to my account and malicious manipulation of my booking. And while they accepted that there was something wrong, they offered no solution or the rest of my money."
For more than a week, the 32-year-old kept pursuing the case and eventually took to social media and tagged senior officials of the airlines, including the Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers. That's when she started receiving calls from the airlines, offering help.
"The customer care executive was kind enough to share the information about the scammers. The email ID they used was maheshmeena00417@gmail.com and the number to which the OTP was sent was 9257384638. And the IP address was 157.38.67.21," Pal shared.
An email from an Indigo customer care executive shared with Moneycontrol stated, "I would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you due to the unfortunate fraudulent activity. Please be assured that our digital team is actively collaborating with our cybersecurity experts to address and rectify this issue promptly."
As Pal bought flight tickets again, the airline said it took further steps to "ensure the security" of her booking. "We have temporarily blocked any modifications or web check-in of your booking. If you have any further requirements or need to make changes, we kindly request you to contact our IndiGo contact centre for assistance," Indigo stated.
On Tuesday, Pal also received a call from another executive who said that a full refund had been initiated for her first booking that was fraudulently cancelled. "He even told me that they have experienced problems like this before and that because they are short on manpower, it takes time for them to resolve these issues, but because I shared the incident on all social media channels and tagged the CEO, they had to expedite my case," she told Moneycontrol.
By Thursday, Pal had received the entire refund.
"This was a horrible and traumatic experience. Despite the clear evidence of fraud and the significant inconvenience caused, my attempts to seek resolution were initially met with minimal assistance," she said, hoping that Indigo would carry out a thorough investigation into the case.
Indigo has reacted to the Moneycontrol report, saying the ailine is aware of the incident. "The fraudster obtained the passenger’s PNR to change the personal details and subsequently cancel bookings," Indigo said in a statement on Friday.
"Upon being contacted, our team initiated the measures to protect the booking and offered a full refund, which was appreciated by the customer."
Indigo said it maintains industry-standard cybersecurity protocols and that it works "constantly to strengthen them".
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