{"id":750,"date":"2019-11-01T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fraud.flywheelsites.com\/frequent_flyer_alert\/"},"modified":"2020-11-09T07:30:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T07:30:42","slug":"frequent_flyer_alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/frequent_flyer_alert\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammers ruining travel plans by stealing victims&#8217; frequent flyer miles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\">Imagine logging into your airline frequent flyer account and\u2014after years of saving to claim a free flight\u2014you find a balance of zero\u00a0miles. Sadly, with <em>an estimated 14 trillion frequent flier miles<\/em> and hotel points floating around unused, scammers have a very large, lucrative target\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\">in\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW250601350 BCX0\">America\u2019s hard-earned miles.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW250601350 BCX0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--content_break--><\/p>\n<p>With the Thanksgiving travel season\u00a0just\u00a0around the corner, that unfortunate scenario could be a real possibility if\u00a0you don\u2019t know\u00a0how to\u00a0avoid or spot\u00a0frequent flyer scams.<\/p>\n<p>Scammers can easily purchase frequent flyer account usernames and passwords on the dark web\u00a0due to numerous data breaches in which this sensitive info was compromised. If a consumer does not\u00a0take care to use\u00a0proper password hygiene, scammers may be able to break into\u00a0their\u00a0online loyalty accounts\u00a0and drain\u00a0all of\u00a0their\u00a0points simply by guessing, or\u00a0by\u00a0using a compromised password from a previous breach.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whether you are saving frequent flyer miles, hotel points, credit card points, or even pizza or coffee reward points, these\u00a0points have value\u00a0and are often a target of scammers. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to\u00a0guard\u00a0your points from being stolen:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use strong passwords.<\/strong>\u00a0Secure your\u00a0points the same way you would your bank accounts. Avoid simple or easy to guess passwords to prevent point theft, and never reuse passwords.\u00a0If you reuse\u00a0a\u00a0password\u00a0across multiple sites or accounts, and one of the\u00a0accounts\u00a0is breached,\u00a0other\u00a0accounts with the same passcode are extremely vulnerable. If you have a hard time remembering\u00a0many\u00a0unique passwords, a password manager program can be a lifesaver.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Utilize two<\/strong><strong>&#8211;<\/strong><strong>factor authentication.<\/strong>\u00a0While two-factor authentication may\u00a0make logging into your accounts take a little more effort, it adds an extra layer of security which could very well make the difference between a free trip\u00a0and paying out-of-pocket. For information on whether your rewards program website offers two-factor authorization, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twofactorauth.org\">www.twofactorauth.org<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Monitor<\/strong><strong>\u00a0your accounts.<\/strong>\u00a0Keep an eye on your account for unauthorized\u00a0withdrawals\u00a0or suspicious activity. If you spot anything\u00a0suspicious,\u00a0report\u00a0it to the company immediately.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Safeguard<\/strong><strong>\u00a0your frequent flier or loyalty account number.<\/strong>\u00a0Treat these numbers like you would a credit or debit card number and keep them secret. Posting a boarding pass with a frequent flier number or even recycling a hotel\u00a0invoice or boarding pass which has the number printed on it, may open your account to theft. Always shred these documents and never post them on social media.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use\u00a0<\/strong><strong>your points<\/strong><strong>!\u00a0<\/strong>Storing\u00a0high\u00a0balances of points needlessly only opens yourself up to fraud and potential theft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, scammers can sometimes find ways to circumvent our safeguards. If this happens to you, contact the company that you earned the points from, and file a complaint at Fraud.org via\u00a0our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.nclforms.org\/nficweb\/nfic.htm\">secure online complaint form<\/a>. We share complaints with our network of nearly 200 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who can and do put fraudsters behind bars.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fraud.org\/fraud-alerts\/\"><strong><u>Read our other Fraud Alerts here.<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With trillions of frequent flier miles going unused, scammers have a very large, lucrative target in America\u2019s hard-earned miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}