One of the researchers who posted a message on Wizz Air’s official account asking if a flight was delayed received responses “almost immediately” from two fake accounts.
“Both used almost identical language, apologizing for the inconvenience, stating that they had ‘already escalated this matter to the relevant department’ and asking via DM for a ‘reachable WhatsApp number for assistance’. [direct message],” Which one? said.
“We have found examples of fake X-accounts pretending to be every major airline operating in Britain,” the organization said.
“We also found that fake accounts are often more responsive than the real airlines, but they also interrupt existing conversations between you and airlines, which can be harder to spot.”
Flag fake accounts
Scammers typically ask for a customer’s surname and the airline’s booking reference number. They may also directly ask for other personal information, such as a passenger’s name and home address.
Which? said reporting fake accounts to
It advised passengers to verify whether an account is genuine by checking for a link on an official website, when it joined X and how many followers it has.
Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “Unscrupulous fraudsters are brazenly trying to deceive airline customers seeking urgent customer service advice through X for stressful situations such as delayed flights and lost luggage.
“There is an epidemic of fraud gripping Britain and that is why 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 must be held to a high standard and Ofcom must not shy away from taking strong enforcement action, including fines, against companies if they break the law.”
Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at anti-virus company ESET, says passengers should check this carefully before responding to social media accounts inviting them to hand over personal details.
“Given that the majority of genuine corporate accounts respond in a very similar way to negative messages on the platform 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 for the real golden tick’
“That’s why people should continue to do their homework and investigate every account they come into contact with before handing over sensitive or financial information.
“This can be done by clicking through from the official website, looking for the real gold tick and looking at the follower numbers for an initial indication.”
X, formerly Twitter, was contacted for comment.
EasyJet, Jet2, TUI and Wizz Air all said they are reporting fake accounts to X and are advising their customers to only interact with official social media profiles.
British Airways was also contacted for comment.
Almost caught by Kenyan scammers
John Arnold, 49, almost fell prey to one of the scams described by Which? in her research.
After being denied entry to Gatwick Airport during a family holiday three weeks ago, he took to X/Twitter to vent his annoyance at the airline.
“I got something like an official response: ‘We are very sorry, this is at the discretion of the staff. If you want to make a complaint, fill out some forms and you might get some money back,” Mr Arnold said.
“Then I got a few phone calls saying: ‘We are going to process your complaint, we are acting on behalf of EasyJet’. And I thought it just didn’t seem right,” he added.
The scammers called Mr Arnold from a Kenyan number and invited him to register for a money transfer app to receive his promised refund.
They invited him to download a money transfer app and provide his banking details in it, but after smelling a rat, he stopped talking to them at that point.
“When I looked at it, it was quite clear that the Twitter pages posing as these EasyJet supervisors were not EasyJet at all.”