Airlines Email Scam Update: “Buy Flight Ticket Online”

When I wrote about the recent airline email scam, I didn’t think it was going to last for this long, nor did I think it was going to be such a problem.  Turns out, I’m getting thousands of views on the article I wrote.  People have been commenting and have been posting the examples of their emails.  Below is a summary of the information I have gathered.  I hope it helps.

This is the list of airlines that have been affected:

1. Virgin America
2. US Airways
3. Southwest Airlines
4. Delta Air Lines
5. Alaska Airlines
6. United Airlines
7. Hawaiian Airlines
8. Midwest Airlines
9. AirTran Airways
10. Continental Airlines
11. USA3000 Airlines
12. Sun Country Airlines
13. Allegiant Air
14. JetBlue Airways
15. Northwest Airlines
16. Spirit Airlines
17. Frontier Airlines
18. American Airlines

These are the countries the email has reached:

1. United States
2. Netherlands
3. Australia
4. United Kingdom
5. Italy
6. Austria
7. Canada
8. France
9. Belgium
10. Finland
11. China

Fake employee names of people that the email is from:

• Tim McNally
• Ruthie Ho
• Melanie Starr

Interesting comments from everyone:

“Ironically I am waiting on a ‘Legit’ travel ticket/receipt.  My girlfriend did the purchasing so I thought this was my confirmation/ticket.  I opened a zip folder attached.  I am running Nortons now….hoping I can get it easily.”

“Yup - I got one today and it was very convincing, except for the fact I am English and have even thought of visiting Alaska!  I nearly opened the file, but being the cautious type, I checked this site out first.  Thank God!”

“I am in the UK and received one of these emails purporting to be from United Airlines.  I opened the email but not the attachment, then googled United Airlines and rang them.  The lady I spoke to assured me that it was not from them, and advised me to delete the email and attachment.  Having used a credit card this week to book an airport hotel on an airport computer I am wondering if there is possibly a connection.  I have various email addresses and this email appeared after the confirmation of my hotel booking made at a german airport on a public computer…..”

Interesting comments from everyone:

“Ironically I am waiting on a ‘Legit’ travel ticket/receipt.  My girlfriend did the purchasing so I thought this was my confirmation/ticket.  I opened a zip folder attached.  I am running Nortons now….hoping I can get it easily.”

“Yup - I got one today and it was very convincing, except for the fact I am English and have even thought of visiting Alaska!  I nearly opened the file, but being the cautious type, I checked this site out first.  Thank God!”

“I am in the UK and received one of these emails purporting to be from United Airlines.  I opened the email but not the attachment, then googled United Airlines and rang them.  The lady I spoke to assured me that it was not from them, and advised me to delete the email and attachment.  Having used a credit card this week to book an airport hotel on an airport computer I am wondering if there is possibly a connection.  I have various email addresses and this email appeared after the confirmation of my hotel booking made at a german airport on a public computer…..”

“I googled the header and found your site.  The e-mail landed in my ‘In-box.’  Just a word of warning, I’m retired these days and thought that I’d enter some competitions to win money or some prizes - BIG MISTAKE.  Even though I have very good virus protection this creepy one managed to land in my in box.  Unfortunately my personal address, DOB and phone number must be circulating all around cyber space, what an idiot i’ve been.”

“Oooh this is sneaky because I am waiting on travel documents too but it just didn’t sit right with me so I didn’t open the attachment.”

“Have to say, am I glad this article-thing exists; I was confused out of my MIND when I saw this e-mail.  Luckily I checked the email address via Google and found it associated with a bunch of other scams (oddly, most of the sites reporting it were in Japanese!) and then found this page.  Here’s the one I got–aside from never linking to the airline webpage, and just generally not being professional, it could’ve fooled me!”

“I have just received an email similar to the above from Virgin America (not Atlantic!) attaching my tickets which I note was an exe. file.  I deleted it immediately.  What worries me is that I did purchase Virgin tickets from Airmiles last week.  Is this coincidence?  I think not.”

“The thing that tipped me off is that it said if we use their site we get 10% off.  That never happens with the airlines.”

Don’t let is happen to you:

“Very stupidly I did open the attachment with devastating results.  Any ideas as to how I can remove the malware and restore my desktop, etc.?”

Just be careful when you fly. Scammers and phishing schemes are getting smarter.  Don’t get fooled, and if anyone is privvy to ways to get rid of the malware, contact us so we can spread the word.

Watch OUT!
-Austin Chu