It used to be that if you called a company and got someone who talked like this scammer did, it would be an instant red flag and you would hang up but thanks to nearly every major company outsourcing their support to foreign countries it's become pretty much expected and so these scammers can impersonate support easily.
Yup, I've even told legitimate support agents that I'm ending the call because I'm not sure if they're scammers or not. I do it as politely as I can. If more people from India encounter issues because of the abundance of scammers there, then maybe the local authorities will finally do something about it.
@@BrockVillainwith the population India has, you can almost be sure that legitimate customer service agents that thousands of corporations have outsourced out of the west because of cheap labor will always outnumber the scam agents. As long as corporations have no other alternatives for labor, the government doesn't really have a need to intervene, even if people are vary of scammers.
It’s unfortunate that many companies make it incredibly difficult to find a contact number on their website. It plays right into the hands of these scammers.
@@billybob4274nah bruh you click "contact us" then it sends you to a fucking community support page and takes like an hour digging through the website to find the number or you get sent to a live chat or worst of all an email support page
Love that they claim to be a huge, world renown company that deals with every airline in the world, and you got the same representative 3 times when you called them.
actually i worked for a company that if you called back and your previous agent was free you’d be routed to them. this was a way to fight call avoidance
I was playing with a scammer that wanted my credit card number. He told me his bank is the top bank in the world that issues the credit cards to Visa & Mastercard. I gave a number from an old credit card that was not active. They kept trying to run it then started yelling at me for wasting their time.😂
1. MANY Companies outsource their support teams to countries in Asia like India and the Philippines, so the accent itself isn't that odd. 2. Support workers always have a fake name to protect the workers from harassment, especially racial harassment, so it's not that improbable for a "foreign" support worker to have a name that's more common for the country where they provide the support.
I honestly had no clue this scam existed, thanks for raising awareness about it. I’m happy I didn’t deal with scammers when I flew from Boston to IL back in July.
Oh it's horrible in small towns you can buy the top result for a competitor in the area and steal out of town business where people out of town have no idea, there's alot of was this can be abused
Greetings from Australia! I got a call from a scammer and I asked him what state (in Australia) he was calling from and he couldn't answer. Asking for local knowledge is one good way of finding out if they are in city they are calling from.
It was funny how the scammer didn't know any of the areas of New York City 😂 But the scammers sure are clever with how they imitate real airlines. Thank you for your work Ben!
Exactly. I’ll probably just would’ve said Queens. but I’ve always been fascinated with New York and you know I still can’t wait to visit someday so I know stuff. But how does no one know anything about nyc.
This just happened to my 75 year old sister. She wanted $200 tickets to Calgary and was charged $1200 by some idiot saying he was in New York working for Air Canada.
The amount of bravery this took was INSANE. These people all had their lives in danger, but still decided to go through with the recovery for the sake of busting bad scammers. True respect Strong widget! If the FBI was half as dedicated and ingenious (and honest) as you guys are, the USA would be a much safer country. Amazing work!..
Hey there, I'm from India and in my City there are three Fake Travel companies are running who are scamming US citizens with lakhs of dollars, where I can report about this scam in US because i don't trust Indian police and law system. I know there complete modus operandi.
@@justme5384well, at 1:36 he clicks on a $145 ticket. There are always fees added on after, but it wouldn't add up to over a $1000. Where did you see $1210? I'm not saying you are wrong, I just didn't see it.
To be fair checking everything that gets added daily would take half of India to do, Google has always been good at dealing with the actual websites when it gets flagged tho
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this video, because there are so many dishonest people out there that lack morals and values, and don’t mind destroying someone’s life for selfish gains. Thank you for what you do.
I swear I nearly fell for something like this when I tried to get my flight credit used for a trip. It's scary how sneaky this stuff gets. But it felt mega weird right off the bat and it didn't get far.
I used to work for an airline in reservations. What some scammers do is they use your confirmation number and credit card to change the ticket online. They will charge your card so it looks like it was done then they will charge you more than it cost. They also have a history of calling you back and saying something went wrong and they needed to send 3000 in Google play cards to make the change. It's sad how many people fall for it then call the airline. Also I've had the scammers actually call the 800 number and pretend to be the passenger to make the changes too.
Honestly, when he started talking about a changing fee + some additional credit, I was expecting him to change the ticket for real (changing fee) then use the card details to make a payment to himself (credit). He could easily justify that he had to make two different payments and most people wouldn't even realize they were scammed, especially since their flight change would have been made. These scammers are both very creative and yet kinda dumb, it's impressive.
Thank you PG. A friend was scammed very much like this one and thankfully the scam got shut down. My friend had learnt a lesson for sure. I will show her this vid to help her what to watch out and to take note and as a reminder in her future travels. Also I will share this with my sister. I know she will be very interested to watch this. P.s My friend got all her money back and the scam call center shut down. This was before the Covid pandemic. Amazing how these scammers are everywhere. Thanks for the exposure 👍
I called Turkish Airlines, had to wait 45 minutes to speak to woman who spoke extremely hard to understand English. I was very polite and asked her to repeat multiple times because I simply did not understand her. She got mad and told me to call back later when my line is better. It's unreal the type of people they hire there...
@DarkSideMaceWindu Yes, I'm calm and keep my cool because she's going to hang up the phone if I start yelling. It's not in my nature anyway, I can be fuming inside but outside I'm a rock. Maybe I was being annoying by slowly stating "can you repeat" like 3 times in a row though
Hey I was waiting for this video. You saved us 200$ my dad was about to fall for the exact same scam and then I heard Inidian accent so I was like tell me where you got the number and he showed me the most sketchy website ever so I told him to hang up and he did. Then he called the actual Lot and they did everything for free. So thank you so much! I learn alot from your videos!
I work for an airline and get calls daily from customers that have been scammed by these so called agents. What's even worse is these people will call the airline pretending to be the customer and tell us there has been some tragic accident with a family member and ask us to change the reservation with no fare difference and still charge hundreds of dollars to the customer.
Another thing is that some customers have the idea that the airline has to solve their problem for them and to fix it for free. So not only the customer takes damage with these scams, but also the airline companies.
@@howlingbeats2544 I've never used an agent to buy a plane ticket, I just go online, go to a ticket comparison site and choose the flight that I wish. If I have any issues, I'll contact the air company myself. No need for some money grabbing third party here.
One thing about booking references: never post your boarding pass online. The confirmation code is in the barcode or even printed on the ticket. With that info, a skilled person could make changes, cancel, request a voucher, order special meals, and see sensitive data (like passport data, contact details, etc). But it’s fun ordering special meals for influencers, not gonna lie.
No, QR code on boarding pass only contains info that's printed on the card. No such info like passport number, DoB or contact details are encoded in the boarding pass QR code.
(2:12)..."help you out with...' is a standard scammer phrase and I always listen for it. It's like they have a huge scarlet 'S' on their chest after that. Thanks as always for your humor, quick wit, and boundless persistence...
I find these videos entertaining and interesting at the same time. Always amusing when the scammers wet themselves after their location is revealed lol. Keep it up!
It's crazy to think that after 10 months, they are still at it, and I even talked to the exact same person you talked to. This was a really great video, I hope it helps prevent others from getting scammed!
OMG this is exactly what happened to my family member! All because of a Google search with a wrong number for the airline. We're worried if those scammers did something with the personal info in the reservation, especially the passport numbers. There's so much that's accessible with just the flight confirmation number.
My Mom bought concert tickets on some weird website and also purchased the insurance... well her Mom needed to go for cancer treatment so my Mom was not able to attend the concert, so she did what anyone would do after purchasing concert tickets with insurance and called the seller and they said there were no refunds... Expose concert ticket resellers next!
So do most legit Indian customer service agents that work for big companies. They are "Work names". I think I'm gonna start asking for legit names though just 'cause I wanna be friendly it HAS to suck being called a fake name all day. I also find it super fun to just be friendly and personal with CS agents in general. It's great when they start laughing and their accents really pop up. ----I had a chat with someone that sounded mildly southern the whole time but not really. Then we started chatting a bit about personal stuff (nothing serious or detailed) and suddenly her accent was THICK. Then we laughed about that and our business was over and we hung up. Was great fun for both of us. I've done kinda the same with some Indian CS people.
You should book a flight with a different airline but call "Southwest" to get it changed. That way you give the scammer a confirmation number for another flight with a different airline to see if he can find it since apparently this company works with all major airlines.
The fact that someone can just hangup on you and ghost you instantly is good enough reason for me to NEVER give financial information over the phone! They're all so full of BS! When I would get the famous call "We're calling because based on our records, your cars extended warranty is about to expire" So I would tell them I have multiple cars and ask which one this call was in reference to- Immediately they'd just hang up on me. They Could have publicly available information about cars I've owned so I stopped that line and instead would ask "What records are you referring to? Which warranty is about to expire? Because I don't own a car." Then they would just rudely hangup without any explanation revealing their true character. They're so nice, friendly and professional sounding as long as they think their facade is intact but the second their story starts crumbling they drop the call like the wimps that they truly are!
The first time I got a call like that, I didn't have a car. The one I'd had had irreparably broken down - plus it was so old, as well as previously owned, that I would have known it to be a scam anyway. I've never had a new car, and all of my cars came from a person, not a car dealership, so never any warranty, let alone an extended one.
I'm a huge fan of yours Pleasant Green & have owned & operated 3 travel companies for over 25 years. Travel is an absolute minefield with crooks everywhere. Any customer wanting to book one of my very, very popular tours who walks into an agency is in big troubles usually. The 1st question the agencies ask me is "how much commission will they get" & its for doing very, very little at all. 20% is what they demand & it's for some minutes, not hours work. They make a HUGE sum for doing so very little. The online hotel mobs, the agencies, ticket wholesalers etc .... Please everyone, be very, very careful in the travel caper. Thanks as always Pleasant Green, you're a dead set, fair dinkum, good bloke !!!
Disturbing. There are people sitting around to only come up with ideas on how to scam people. Have watched a good number of scam videos and have to say, the scams are getting better and therefore harder to identify as such. Thank you for providing this kind of education.
@@Code7Unltd in this case was it via a phone number shown by Google. I guess it will be difficult to impossible that scam contact are not shown via a search engine.
@@Code7Unltd Definitely both. It doesn't help also that many of them have their call center in India or other exotic places, making it harder to identify which ones are legit.
I started a call centre job about a year ago, there was a guy who was indian with the accent and everything in our training. They tossed us on the phones after a week of training and the guy quit the next day… i cant imagine how he was treated. All because people expect this accent to always be a scam. Felt so bad for the guy he legit wanted to work and help customers but i have to assume he received more anger and hate than thanks and kindness.
I worked for a legit market research call centre. There was a lady who couldn't disguise her Indian accent and so the public wouldn't believe that she was a legit market researcher in their city. She was let go, unfortunately, because she had difficulty getting people to complete the surveys with her.
Outstanding video, and I like how you show people how the airline ticket booking scam works. Great job, Pleasant Green, and give my best regards to Ben Dover. Also, I am going to sign up for Aura as after watching this video, I believe the safeguards Aura provides are much needed, especially these days. Cheers!
Honestly, this is why every major company needs to have call centers so they can hire people that strictly do customer service for that company. I can’t stand trying to get a hold of something like Walmart or any sort of big corporation and being sent through like 20 extensions just to get a hold of somebody. And I’m in my 20s still so I can only imagine how annoying it is for someone else like 60.
@@jonathandpg6115 So I see jonathan you have now labeled everyone that might have a legitimate complaint as a Karen? I think the next time you have a thought, just let it go.
Well, Walmart annoys me in general and I wouldn't expect them to have good customer service, that's not really why people shop there. But some other companies, yeah.
I would think they ARE making the flight changes. This would minimize chargebacks, and the "company" can justify themselves to the CC processors as a "travel agent".
Yup, correct. They also send you an email that you have to respond to, and hidden in the fine print is all the guff about how they are actually a travel agent, and the fee is for "providing a service" (which would, in most cases, be free, if you called the real phone number). Even though I did, technically, agree to this by responding, I disputed it with my bank, and the scammers didn't put up any fight. Obviously they didn't want to bring any unwanted attention upon themselves. Most people will never even realize they've been scammed...so if a small number do realize, they just don't contest the charge-back. They are likely making millions doing this.
The day they start sounding like actual Americans. Note how the scammers all had Indian accents, even though their American English has improved I must say. Then listen to the voice of the actual Airlines support.
@@AudieHolland some people are actually tryna work though. Not these guys lmao but people with indian accents that are just trying to legitimately work are always just assumed to be scammers. Some airlines do have real call centers in india though.
@@feint2168 True. Well I agree with the government thing. Considering the accent to be a red flag is a bit too much. Most of the time you can tell if someone is trying to get you to make changes to your computer or bank account so they get easy access. If you know just a little bit of what goes on during scams you should be (for the most part) fine if you stop the call. But I completely understand where you're coming from fr
I’ve been watching a few scammer channels on RUclips but must say your channel and Jim have to be one of the most informative channels I’ve watched. You both explain and talk through the scam as well as what to expect. Typically the others are just scammers shouting over the phone and sometimes sound too fake to be genuine calls? Although that might not be the case I do feel your channel and Jim are the top scam bait channels I’ve seen.
We once did it with a company where they get your information, and then they find the seats, luckily they were honest enough to say that there were no seats on the flight, but I do see how the elderly can be confused with the stuff, sad stuff, really
Wow this brings back memories of when I was scammed by Alaska airlines 🤦🏽♀️the only difference with me is I knew scambaiters that were flooding them at the time so once 50 or more people started calling them nonstop the scambaiter finally was able to speak to the manager and he was begging for us to stop calling and asked what could he do for the calls to stop and the SB said I want you to give Stephanie Humphries every dime of her $879 plus an apology email from Shelly that scammed me and I got both right away and the rest is history lol. Great job Ben 👏🏽😘
Some of these companies are worse than the actual scammers. Only time I had to sue was an insurance company and I had a police officer as a prime witness to the accident. My biggest regret was settling as I was in school. Good thing was 12 years later they tried scamming my mom behind my dad’s attorneys back and I fought the phone from my mom and told her some choice respectable words and a week later they accepted 100% responsibility. It was our own insurance we had as well too so it was even worse! Got my parents a check instead of a bill.
Interesting idea. Billions of $ leaving the country every year, I wonder if a few thousand people would come forward and tell their stories to the law.@@timriehl1500
@@timriehl1500 Also you know nobody forces you to use the phone number straight from google...You can easily just go to the company website to be far from scammers 😅
Nobody is forcing you to use google. People say google it all the time for some reason. In 1997, there were 200 search engines. People decided to use only google and then you end up with no competition, no alternative. Well, there is still some competition left.
Lmao the immediate heavy mouth breathing the second you mention India 😂. Thanks for your awesome work, Mike Rafone! Hope you got to your destination safely 🤪.
Great video …. Your confidence on exposing this guys is genius . Almost fell for this type of reservation change and I couldn’t because it became very expensive. Hope we all learn from this .
Also Pleasant Green is one of my fav scam baiters out there, dude is not only very earnest and professional but can poke around and have fun too. Why I've enjoyed watching him for so long c:
Congratulations on your video. There was some unpleasantness in the scambaiting world in early 2022, where a lot of scambaiters are now hesitant to call travel scammers. I am glad you are taking them on.
Your videos are always great, usually with scams that I've never heard of before. Very educational and entertaining. Thank you for all of these useful videos.
This literally happened to me last week. It felt suspect the whole time so I locked my card before they charged it. Ended up finding the real phone number and changed my flight for free
I used to work inn a legit Travel agent and they do this exact thing. Especially for low cost airlines that do not pay commissions. Agents are encouraged to add on more margin. There is no special agent portal for most these lowcost airlines the agent just takes the details finds out what the cost is adds on margin and "adjusts" the print out so the value of the change matches the price the "customer" is charged. Very unethical and I no longer work in the industry.
As someone who worked in the hospitality industry for several years, this is also common with hotel reservation scams too. They've been increasing like crazy!!!
I was cracking up when you told him you wanted visit him in India and you just heard the man breathing heavily, likely ready to have a panic attack, lol
"reservation desk for all the airlines" Who writes this stuff? 😂 BA, United, Southwest, Lufthansa, Air Emirates, Qantas, SwissAir, Air Canada... all the airlines.
I think Google should be held accountable for the phone numbers they display. Google is paid for these numbers to be displayed prominently , and never verify that it is a valid site or number. Many scam sites are displayed under the Google search .
It should be the responsibility of the company to ensure their business is not misrepresented on the Internet. It seems an easy task for any establishment that truly values their customers.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
The old 'Faremart Travels' model. Nice video!
Thanks Jim! 😂
😢😢
Hahaha I remember that!
First thing I thought of as well!
Love your videos man nice to see you supporting other creators
It used to be that if you called a company and got someone who talked like this scammer did, it would be an instant red flag and you would hang up but thanks to nearly every major company outsourcing their support to foreign countries it's become pretty much expected and so these scammers can impersonate support easily.
Yup, I've even told legitimate support agents that I'm ending the call because I'm not sure if they're scammers or not. I do it as politely as I can. If more people from India encounter issues because of the abundance of scammers there, then maybe the local authorities will finally do something about it.
True
@@BrockVillainwith the population India has, you can almost be sure that legitimate customer service agents that thousands of corporations have outsourced out of the west because of cheap labor will always outnumber the scam agents.
As long as corporations have no other alternatives for labor, the government doesn't really have a need to intervene, even if people are vary of scammers.
Vodafone Australia.
Super sad
Ben Dover’s going international 😂
Ummm then what would you call Nigeria and the other places he has had on his show? He's been international you numbnut 😂
He's world-renowned!
Bros gonna get ben tover 😂
@@platoh you got jokes! 😅😅😅
@@Pritam252 lmao yep! 😂😂😂😂
STOOPPP, the heavy breathing 😂😂 he was terrified 🤣🤣 and rightly so 😂😂
I used the methods I saw on your videos and I got the guys name ip etc. It was super fun :) he got soooo mad
It’s unfortunate that many companies make it incredibly difficult to find a contact number on their website. It plays right into the hands of these scammers.
I've always found it in the "Contact Us" link at the bottom. People are just too lazy these days.
@@billybob4274Sometimes there isn't a number available on the "Contact Us" page.
ya literally just give a fucking number, SO mnay companies do this, like why
@rickenbacker40011 so they can cut down on customer service agents. Many companies now are even ditching phone centers and using chat services.
@@billybob4274nah bruh you click "contact us" then it sends you to a fucking community support page and takes like an hour digging through the website to find the number or you get sent to a live chat or worst of all an email support page
Love that they claim to be a huge, world renown company that deals with every airline in the world, and you got the same representative 3 times when you called them.
at least he changed his voice 🤣
And none of them open up with the company's name.
actually i worked for a company that if you called back and your previous agent was free you’d be routed to them. this was a way to fight call avoidance
I was playing with a scammer that wanted my credit card number. He told me his bank is the top bank in the world that issues the credit cards to Visa & Mastercard. I gave a number from an old credit card that was not active. They kept trying to run it then started yelling at me for wasting their time.😂
that heavy breathing he does when he’s been caught was amazing lmao
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yep exactly 😂😂😂 that's what his stupid ass gets!
was just about to comment that lol
Mike Rafone is internationally feared!
the dramatic music when you asked to go to India... comedic gold
The first red flag would be a dude with a thick Indian accent saying his name is Jim lol
I agree! That was the first red flag when I called supposedly the IRS and I heard an Indian accent! I hung up right away!
1. MANY Companies outsource their support teams to countries in Asia like India and the Philippines, so the accent itself isn't that odd.
2. Support workers always have a fake name to protect the workers from harassment, especially racial harassment, so it's not that improbable for a "foreign" support worker to have a name that's more common for the country where they provide the support.
I honestly had no clue this scam existed, thanks for raising awareness about it. I’m happy I didn’t deal with scammers when I flew from Boston to IL back in July.
Oh it's horrible in small towns you can buy the top result for a competitor in the area and steal out of town business where people out of town have no idea, there's alot of was this can be abused
How do you get scammed, buy on the legitimate site. It's really not that difficult
They do the same with imitating facebook customer service and whatever they think they can make a few bucks with.
@@23Butanedione i went through the AA app but couldn't click number, ..7300 is AA, ...7800 was India but luckily I saw this video
Greetings from Australia! I got a call from a scammer and I asked him what state (in Australia) he was calling from and he couldn't answer. Asking for local knowledge is one good way of finding out if they are in city they are calling from.
It was funny how the scammer didn't know any of the areas of New York City 😂 But the scammers sure are clever with how they imitate real airlines. Thank you for your work Ben!
Quick what's a big city in the state of New York? 🤔😂
@@j2simpsoUtica and Albany
@@j2simpsoNew York, NY. Like how hard is that one lmao
Exactly. I’ll probably just would’ve said Queens. but I’ve always been fascinated with New York and you know I still can’t wait to visit someday so I know stuff. But how does no one know anything about nyc.
When he asked where in New York and the scammer hesitated, I was waiting for the scammer to answer "uh... I live in Times Square"
This just happened to my 75 year old sister. She wanted $200 tickets to Calgary and was charged $1200 by some idiot saying he was in New York working for Air Canada.
The amount of bravery this took was INSANE.
These people all had their lives in danger, but still decided to go through with the recovery for the sake of busting bad scammers. True respect
Strong widget!
If the FBI was half as dedicated and ingenious (and honest) as you guys are, the USA would be a much safer country.
Amazing work!..
Hey there, I'm from India and in my City there are three Fake Travel companies are running who are scamming US citizens with lakhs of dollars, where I can report about this scam in US because i don't trust Indian police and law system.
I know there complete modus operandi.
“I’m from New York.”
“What part?”
“Los Angelos.”
😂😂😂
He flew there on Southwest Business Class.
@@MirzaAhmed89With the business select package, very good class
@@MirzaAhmed89Business Class Select, a good class
@@MirzaAhmed89it’s good class
Dude actually buys a ticket to see what happens with the scam. Big W
He bought a $145 ticket and they charged him over $500 to change it. Omg.
@@yosf5221 wasn't that a 1210$ ticket?
@@justme5384well, at 1:36 he clicks on a $145 ticket. There are always fees added on after, but it wouldn't add up to over a $1000. Where did you see $1210? I'm not saying you are wrong, I just didn't see it.
You have 24 hours to cancel a flight for free and get a full refund.
@@alchile5902 oh nice, didn't know that
This channel never gets old Mr Dover!
*Mr Rafone
@France_Mapping he uses the name Ben Dover all the time in videos.
@France_Mapping correct, he rotates between the two.
@@AnimationByDylan Ben Dover, husband of Eileen Dover?!
Eileen.... isn't she the gal with one leg shorter than the other?
"This is not PCM. We are ALL the airlines."
Indian voice = hang up
OUR airlines 💪
Why doesn't Google get called out for letting these companies advertise on their platform?
Money
To be fair checking everything that gets added daily would take half of India to do, Google has always been good at dealing with the actual websites when it gets flagged tho
@YOURteacher_100 it doesn't tho.
Or YouToob for the scam ads?
Deep AI, Fake Pianos ect.
google is nothing more than a search engine
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this video, because there are so many dishonest people out there that lack morals and values, and don’t mind destroying someone’s life for selfish gains. Thank you for what you do.
Actually they're in need and in no position to choose. Maybe because of unemployment
I swear I nearly fell for something like this when I tried to get my flight credit used for a trip. It's scary how sneaky this stuff gets. But it felt mega weird right off the bat and it didn't get far.
Its fun calling them up and pranking them. Their phone number is still up. When they ask a confirmation code i give them FU_KY_U. Its hillarious!!!
@@shaft5 We should trace these scammers and say"f--k off !
@@shaft5 😭
Good job Ellen!
Some of these are so easy to fall for. One moment of weakness and you are screwed. It doesn't need to be anything big even. Being sleepy is enough.
‘We are SOUTHWEST AIRLINES…..’ (Wait for it) ‘CONSOLIDATORS.’
I used to work for an airline in reservations. What some scammers do is they use your confirmation number and credit card to change the ticket online. They will charge your card so it looks like it was done then they will charge you more than it cost. They also have a history of calling you back and saying something went wrong and they needed to send 3000 in Google play cards to make the change. It's sad how many people fall for it then call the airline. Also I've had the scammers actually call the 800 number and pretend to be the passenger to make the changes too.
Honestly, when he started talking about a changing fee + some additional credit, I was expecting him to change the ticket for real (changing fee) then use the card details to make a payment to himself (credit). He could easily justify that he had to make two different payments and most people wouldn't even realize they were scammed, especially since their flight change would have been made. These scammers are both very creative and yet kinda dumb, it's impressive.
Thank you PG. A friend was scammed very much like this one and thankfully the scam got shut down. My friend had learnt a lesson for sure. I will show her this vid to help her what to watch out and to take note and as a reminder in her future travels. Also I will share this with my sister. I know she will be very interested to watch this.
P.s My friend got all her money back and the scam call center shut down. This was before the Covid pandemic.
Amazing how these scammers are everywhere. Thanks for the exposure 👍
I called Turkish Airlines, had to wait 45 minutes to speak to woman who spoke extremely hard to understand English. I was very polite and asked her to repeat multiple times because I simply did not understand her. She got mad and told me to call back later when my line is better. It's unreal the type of people they hire there...
Are you sure you were as polite as you think you were?
@DarkSideMaceWindu Yes, I'm calm and keep my cool because she's going to hang up the phone if I start yelling. It's not in my nature anyway, I can be fuming inside but outside I'm a rock. Maybe I was being annoying by slowly stating "can you repeat" like 3 times in a row though
The heavy breathing and the panic in his voice...wow.
Every time Ben uploads, I get pumped
Bevause of your videos I saved my wife from a geek squad scam! Thank you!!!
The music change is gold, man is nervous like he got pressed by Batman 😂
I love it when they are CONFRONTED with their BS lies, thanks for all you do!
Hey I was waiting for this video. You saved us 200$ my dad was about to fall for the exact same scam and then I heard Inidian accent so I was like tell me where you got the number and he showed me the most sketchy website ever so I told him to hang up and he did. Then he called the actual Lot and they did everything for free. So thank you so much! I learn alot from your videos!
Excellent job! Thank goodness you were there.
Cool story, senators suck sadly
I work for an airline and get calls daily from customers that have been scammed by these so called agents. What's even worse is these people will call the airline pretending to be the customer and tell us there has been some tragic accident with a family member and ask us to change the reservation with no fare difference and still charge hundreds of dollars to the customer.
Shocking
Wow. I hope your resources allow you to verify ticket owners. I can't imagine having to guess who's a liar.
Another thing is that some customers have the idea that the airline has to solve their problem for them and to fix it for free. So not only the customer takes damage with these scams, but also the airline companies.
As a Finnish person I've never even heard of this scam. North American company have to do better, seriously.
@@howlingbeats2544 I've never used an agent to buy a plane ticket, I just go online, go to a ticket comparison site and choose the flight that I wish. If I have any issues, I'll contact the air company myself. No need for some money grabbing third party here.
One thing about booking references: never post your boarding pass online. The confirmation code is in the barcode or even printed on the ticket. With that info, a skilled person could make changes, cancel, request a voucher, order special meals, and see sensitive data (like passport data, contact details, etc).
But it’s fun ordering special meals for influencers, not gonna lie.
I'd watch a RUclips channel of a person doing that and showing the aftermath
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist1 blessed be the spammers, for they are on the road to hell
Haha, like sodium-reduced vegan meals?
@@3rdalbumMOML is a valid meal option on Middle Eastern airlines
No, QR code on boarding pass only contains info that's printed on the card. No such info like passport number, DoB or contact details are encoded in the boarding pass QR code.
These scammers offer a better service than airlines, with no wait time, immediate and attentive customer service.
That right there ought to be a warning flag! 🟥
(2:12)..."help you out with...' is a standard scammer phrase and I always listen for it. It's like they have a huge scarlet 'S' on their chest after that. Thanks as always for your humor, quick wit, and boundless persistence...
I find these videos entertaining and interesting at the same time. Always amusing when the scammers wet themselves after their location is revealed lol. Keep it up!
I love how you can feel the scammer's expression at 11:28 going from 😃 to 😟
Fortunately did not have to deal with scammers when I flew in January. Another useful video. Thanks, Ben!
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for watching.
@@PleasantGreenwhat voice changer do you use
Loved this. Keep up the great work! I've also always scrolled down never using "Googled sponsored ads" that come up at the top of a Google search!
It's crazy to think that after 10 months, they are still at it, and I even talked to the exact same person you talked to. This was a really great video, I hope it helps prevent others from getting scammed!
OMG this is exactly what happened to my family member! All because of a Google search with a wrong number for the airline. We're worried if those scammers did something with the personal info in the reservation, especially the passport numbers. There's so much that's accessible with just the flight confirmation number.
My Mom bought concert tickets on some weird website and also purchased the insurance... well her Mom needed to go for cancer treatment so my Mom was not able to attend the concert, so she did what anyone would do after purchasing concert tickets with insurance and called the seller and they said there were no refunds...
Expose concert ticket resellers next!
Sounds like mom needs a little lesson about buying stuff online
Oh, was it Viagogo?
@@XxSuicidalNinjaxXlmao fr😂😂😂😂😂
Damn, they are coming up with different scams EVERY SINGLE DAY! Thank you so much for sharing, Ben.
The heavy breathing when he got caught 😂
11:27 gave me the chills!!!!!!! Amazing work as always!
Every Indian scammer has an English name, Jim, Aiden, Alex, Frank, Frederick, Shane, Lol
So do most legit Indian customer service agents that work for big companies. They are "Work names".
I think I'm gonna start asking for legit names though just 'cause I wanna be friendly it HAS to suck being called a fake name all day.
I also find it super fun to just be friendly and personal with CS agents in general. It's great when they start laughing and their accents really pop up.
----I had a chat with someone that sounded mildly southern the whole time but not really. Then we started chatting a bit about personal stuff (nothing serious or detailed) and suddenly her accent was THICK. Then we laughed about that and our business was over and we hung up.
Was great fun for both of us.
I've done kinda the same with some Indian CS people.
You should book a flight with a different airline but call "Southwest" to get it changed. That way you give the scammer a confirmation number for another flight with a different airline to see if he can find it since apparently this company works with all major airlines.
Ha ha ha... the heavy breathing of panic upon learning that you got him was priceless :)
The fact that someone can just hangup on you and ghost you instantly is good enough reason for me to NEVER give financial information over the phone!
They're all so full of BS!
When I would get the famous call
"We're calling because based on our records, your cars extended warranty is about to expire"
So I would tell them I have multiple cars and ask which one this call was in reference to-
Immediately they'd just hang up on me.
They Could have publicly available information about cars I've owned so I stopped that line and instead would ask "What records are you referring to? Which warranty is about to expire? Because I don't own a car."
Then they would just rudely hangup without any explanation revealing their true character.
They're so nice, friendly and professional sounding as long as they think their facade is intact but the second their story starts crumbling they drop the call like the wimps that they truly are!
The first time I got a call like that, I didn't have a car. The one I'd had had irreparably broken down - plus it was so old, as well as previously owned, that I would have known it to be a scam anyway.
I've never had a new car, and all of my cars came from a person, not a car dealership, so never any warranty, let alone an extended one.
11:36 “just then,the king felt true fear for the first time” ahh moment
I'm a huge fan of yours Pleasant Green & have owned & operated 3 travel companies for over 25 years.
Travel is an absolute minefield with crooks everywhere.
Any customer wanting to book one of my very, very popular tours who walks into an agency is in big troubles usually.
The 1st question the agencies ask me is "how much commission will they get" & its for doing very, very little at all.
20% is what they demand & it's for some minutes, not hours work.
They make a HUGE sum for doing so very little.
The online hotel mobs, the agencies, ticket wholesalers etc ....
Please everyone, be very, very careful in the travel caper.
Thanks as always Pleasant Green, you're a dead set, fair dinkum, good bloke !!!
I'm always reluctant to bait travel scammers because it's really hard to determine if they are scamming. Thanks for revealing what they actually do.
They sounded indian, therefore, it is a scam call center.
@@louistournas120 there's a lot of legit call centres in India, unfortunately the scammers are responsible for people feeling this way. 😥
@@louistournas120that's a stereotype. Ask them where they're from. If they're honest, then it ain't a scam probably.
Bea Hindebars. That is perfect.
Getting a midroll ad from "California Psychics" in a video about scambaiting is gold. Ben Dover needs his fortune read 😆
I am no longer surprised at the types of scams they come up with. I am learning to be hypervigilant in who I talk to and what information they want.
"i dont need to go to Denver anymore, I'd like to come where you're at 😂😂 this is just funny!
It's crazy my mom almost got scammed by this scam be careful
Disturbing. There are people sitting around to only come up with ideas on how to scam people. Have watched a good number of scam videos and have to say, the scams are getting better and therefore harder to identify as such.
Thank you for providing this kind of education.
Are the scams getting better, or the legitimate companies getting lazier? Who knows, it could be both.
@@Code7Unltd in this case was it via a phone number shown by Google. I guess it will be difficult to impossible that scam contact are not shown via a search engine.
@@Code7Unltd Definitely both. It doesn't help also that many of them have their call center in India or other exotic places, making it harder to identify which ones are legit.
@Code7Unltd it's too tempting. There are way too many idiots out here. Why let Klarna, Affirm, car dealers etc make all the money.
Just imagine an upstanding Indian living in the US who applies to work in customer care at an airline. These scammers just made it a lot harder.
I started a call centre job about a year ago, there was a guy who was indian with the accent and everything in our training. They tossed us on the phones after a week of training and the guy quit the next day… i cant imagine how he was treated. All because people expect this accent to always be a scam. Felt so bad for the guy he legit wanted to work and help customers but i have to assume he received more anger and hate than thanks and kindness.
British Airways has their call centers in India and the agents are great.
@@TheHollowBlade Tell your Indian co-worker to get a voice disguiser, to remove his indian accent.
@@Vagabond_Etranger oooo thats such a decent idea.
I worked for a legit market research call centre. There was a lady who couldn't disguise her Indian accent and so the public wouldn't believe that she was a legit market researcher in their city. She was let go, unfortunately, because she had difficulty getting people to complete the surveys with her.
Outstanding video, and I like how you show people how the airline ticket booking scam works. Great job, Pleasant Green, and give my best regards to Ben Dover. Also, I am going to sign up for Aura as after watching this video, I believe the safeguards Aura provides are much needed, especially these days. Cheers!
Honestly, this is why every major company needs to have call centers so they can hire people that strictly do customer service for that company.
I can’t stand trying to get a hold of something like Walmart or any sort of big corporation and being sent through like 20 extensions just to get a hold of somebody. And I’m in my 20s still so I can only imagine how annoying it is for someone else like 60.
@@jonathandpg6115 So I see jonathan you have now labeled everyone that might have a legitimate complaint as a Karen? I think the next time you have a thought, just let it go.
Well, Walmart annoys me in general and I wouldn't expect them to have good customer service, that's not really why people shop there. But some other companies, yeah.
9:13 the cheeky look on your face always sends me 😂
11:22 The silence when they realize you know everything 😂😂 Hilarious!
That “SoRrY???” cracked me tf up 🤣🤣🤣
I would think they ARE making the flight changes. This would minimize chargebacks, and the "company" can justify themselves to the CC processors as a "travel agent".
Yup, correct. They also send you an email that you have to respond to, and hidden in the fine print is all the guff about how they are actually a travel agent, and the fee is for "providing a service" (which would, in most cases, be free, if you called the real phone number). Even though I did, technically, agree to this by responding, I disputed it with my bank, and the scammers didn't put up any fight. Obviously they didn't want to bring any unwanted attention upon themselves. Most people will never even realize they've been scammed...so if a small number do realize, they just don't contest the charge-back. They are likely making millions doing this.
its great that you bring this kind of information to people's attention! Looking forward to seeing you onscreen again PCC this year!
I was just a victim of this scam, and it brought me very close to death. I'd love to tell you my story, Pleasant Green.
I’m sorry to hear that! If they have an Indian accent, avoid
@@missvida6251
Unfortunately, I'm going forward with the same mindset. Like I said, it's terribly unfortunate.
I don't know if he put this story on his channel. It would be nice to hear as a warning to innocent people. I hope you're doing okay now.
Thanks!
“Paging Mike Raphone, can you please go directly to Gate 13, your flight is leaving”
Thanks for your hard work in tracking this down, Ben. You are a hero. Can hardly wait to see you at PCC!
It is scary that these scams are happening. The more we know, the more we can stop these people.
The day they start sounding like actual Americans. Note how the scammers all had Indian accents, even though their American English has improved I must say.
Then listen to the voice of the actual Airlines support.
LOL The More You Know TV banner and music.
@@AudieHolland some people are actually tryna work though. Not these guys lmao but people with indian accents that are just trying to legitimately work are always just assumed to be scammers. Some airlines do have real call centers in india though.
@@ishan_p15the Indian government allowed this stereotype to flourish. Better safe than sorry; an Indian accent over the phone is a red flag nowadays
@@feint2168 True. Well I agree with the government thing. Considering the accent to be a red flag is a bit too much. Most of the time you can tell if someone is trying to get you to make changes to your computer or bank account so they get easy access. If you know just a little bit of what goes on during scams you should be (for the most part) fine if you stop the call. But I completely understand where you're coming from fr
I’ve been watching a few scammer channels on RUclips but must say your channel and Jim have to be one of the most informative channels I’ve watched. You both explain and talk through the scam as well as what to expect.
Typically the others are just scammers shouting over the phone and sometimes sound too fake to be genuine calls?
Although that might not be the case I do feel your channel and Jim are the top scam bait channels I’ve seen.
We once did it with a company where they get your information, and then they find the seats, luckily they were honest enough to say that there were no seats on the flight, but I do see how the elderly can be confused with the stuff, sad stuff, really
Wow this brings back memories of when I was scammed by Alaska airlines 🤦🏽♀️the only difference with me is I knew scambaiters that were flooding them at the time so once 50 or more people started calling them nonstop the scambaiter finally was able to speak to the manager and he was begging for us to stop calling and asked what could he do for the calls to stop and the SB said I want you to give Stephanie Humphries every dime of her $879 plus an apology email from Shelly that scammed me and I got both right away and the rest is history lol. Great job Ben 👏🏽😘
Some of these companies are worse than the actual scammers. Only time I had to sue was an insurance company and I had a police officer as a prime witness to the accident. My biggest regret was settling as I was in school. Good thing was 12 years later they tried scamming my mom behind my dad’s attorneys back and I fought the phone from my mom and told her some choice respectable words and a week later they accepted 100% responsibility. It was our own insurance we had as well too so it was even worse! Got my parents a check instead of a bill.
WOOHOO! A win for the good guys.@@rafaeltorre1643
Hi hun. You were very lucky and I'm so happy for you. I hope you framed the apology. :)
It's crazy to me google does not have a verified option for numbers, instead they have sponsored posts first
Agreed! In a way, they are assisting scammers! Wondering if a class action lawsuit would get their attention.
Because money matters man Google is hungry to show any ads for a few bucks
Interesting idea. Billions of $ leaving the country every year, I wonder if a few thousand people would come forward and tell their stories to the law.@@timriehl1500
@@timriehl1500 Also you know nobody forces you to use the phone number straight from google...You can easily just go to the company website to be far from scammers 😅
Nobody is forcing you to use google. People say google it all the time for some reason. In 1997, there were 200 search engines. People decided to use only google and then you end up with no competition, no alternative.
Well, there is still some competition left.
Lmao the immediate heavy mouth breathing the second you mention India 😂. Thanks for your awesome work, Mike Rafone! Hope you got to your destination safely 🤪.
If I was this customer service representative i would say “ sir have you been at the Helium?”😂
Great video …. Your confidence on exposing this guys is genius . Almost fell for this type of reservation change and I couldn’t because it became very expensive. Hope we all learn from this .
Also Pleasant Green is one of my fav scam baiters out there, dude is not only very earnest and professional but can poke around and have fun too.
Why I've enjoyed watching him for so long c:
Thank you for exposing these thieves.
Congratulations on your video. There was some unpleasantness in the scambaiting world in early 2022, where a lot of scambaiters are now hesitant to call travel scammers. I am glad you are taking them on.
What happened?
Scammers are like vampires, you have to let them in. Lock your doors and dont answer!😂😂😂
Indian guy named Jim is the first red flag
Naaaa. Legit customer service agents in India frequently give you a "Work name" that's American sounding.
Your videos are always great, usually with scams that I've never heard of before. Very educational and entertaining. Thank you for all of these useful videos.
Keep fighting the good fight my man !
This literally happened to me last week. It felt suspect the whole time so I locked my card before they charged it. Ended up finding the real phone number and changed my flight for free
4:56, The punch line: "Sir, you have to provide me the card number for the safety".
I used to work inn a legit Travel agent and they do this exact thing. Especially for low cost airlines that do not pay commissions. Agents are encouraged to add on more margin. There is no special agent portal for most these lowcost airlines the agent just takes the details finds out what the cost is adds on margin and "adjusts" the print out so the value of the change matches the price the "customer" is charged. Very unethical and I no longer work in the industry.
As someone who worked in the hospitality industry for several years, this is also common with hotel reservation scams too. They've been increasing like crazy!!!
Wow, I never heard of this scam. Thanks for educating us!
"I am all the airlines"
-Darth PCM
So *EVERY SINGLE AIRLINE ON EARTH* uses the same reservation team?😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The dramatic music Ben 😂😂😂 I was so weaaaak. The heavy breathing he was doing! 😂
So glad I usually make changes online and double check when I have to call. Even then, you gotta stay vigilant!
Love how you expose these scammers without any shouting or swearing and staying calm throughout
Blame the companies who don’t post easy CS
Brilliant work.! I was a reasoned a victim of scammer of package delivery! Be careful guys of sms package delivery...
I was cracking up when you told him you wanted visit him in India and you just heard the man breathing heavily, likely ready to have a panic attack, lol
"reservation desk for all the airlines"
Who writes this stuff? 😂
BA, United, Southwest, Lufthansa, Air Emirates, Qantas, SwissAir, Air Canada... all the airlines.
Man I hate going to Los Angeles, New York
Seriously! It's got to be the worst place, ever! 😂
I think Google should be held accountable for the phone numbers they display. Google is paid for these numbers to be displayed prominently , and never verify that it is a valid site or number. Many scam sites are displayed under the Google search .
Lmao when he said "sorry?" at 11:36, it sounded like he was seeing his life flash before his eyes
It should be the responsibility of the company to ensure their business is not misrepresented on the Internet. It seems an easy task for any establishment that truly values their customers.