Clicking the top search result connected her to someone claiming to work for the airline. They didn't; it was a con.
Ann, an NHS palliative care worker from Sheffield, had been caught out by a click-to-dial search engine advert. These ads typically appear in search engine results (Google and Bing, for example) when searching on a mobile device. The advert contains a phone number that starts a phone call with one simple click. This convenient feature is often gamed by scammers.
Virgin Atlantic impersonation
‘A really polite man told me my flight was at risk of being cancelled because I hadn’t paid the airport taxes. He said they had been trying to contact me and I could pay it now to reinstate my flights,’ Ann told Which?.
Worried that her flights would be cancelled, she approved a £370 credit card payment via her M&S Bank app, as instructed.
But her confirmation email came from ‘air-tickets.uk’, which states on its website that it’s the trading name of a Swedish-based business called Travel Guru AB. She called her son-in-law, who said this was likely to be a scam.
Which? asked M&S Bank to review Ann’s case, and it refunded her as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.
We think that, from the beginning, it should have processed this case as a Section 75 claim – a legal credit card purchase protection covering goods and services costing more than £100 and up to £30,000.
M&S Bank said: ‘We would always encourage customers to be vigilant and thoroughly research any provider, and the services being offered, before completing a purchase. While we were unable to claim against the retailer for a refund of fees on this occasion, we have credited the customer’s account.’
Air-tickets.uk didn’t respond to our repeated attempts to contact it about this case. Virgin Atlantic said it works to take down websites impersonating its brand and encourages customers to be vigilant and report cases to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud).
Click-to-dial search ad scams
Which? has uncovered many rogue businesses gaming online advertising platforms to trick people who are looking for the contact details of reputable companies.
We reported nine of these advertisers to Google, and it then removed the ads we shared and suspended the associated accounts, telling us that it ‘expressly prohibits ads that scam people by misrepresenting information about products or services’.
How to stay safe from scams
The safest way to avoid these scams is to ignore online adverts and contact businesses using a trusted method. Always check official websites or documents, such as your bank statements and bills, for their contact details – not a search engine.
Use our free tool to help you make a Section 75 complaint.
undefinedsource https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/i-was-conned-by-a-fake-virgin-atlantic-advert-on-a-search-engine-adnZ60Y98esK