WestJet Reports & Reviews (5)
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SCAMPULSE
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SCAMPULSE
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They asked for my email address, and the flight confirmation number, all of which seemed fine at the time. And as most sites do these days, they said that they would need to verify my identification, and said that they were using a 3rd party to do that, which required me to upload my drivers license. Again, based on the previous conversation this did not seem to be too weird, since lots of things are done electronically these day. They explained that if I had any difficulties, that they would guide me through it. I in fact had a few problems, but finally was able to complete the procedure. While I was having the problems, they kept asking me to send a screenshot of what I was seeing, which I did not do.
Once completing the verification process, I received an email saying that I could now set up my crypto currency account with this platform, named Mercury.io. Boom, red flags. Why was a crypto currency company being used to verify my ID. The email had a verification number, like a PIN, and at that point they wanted to know what that number was. Now I became very suspicious.
At this point I started asking questions of them, and asking for:
- their identification ID
- details about my booking with them (if it was truly the airline, they would have been able to do that)
They provided an ID number, but deflected the question about the booking details, kept asking for the verification number, and saying that my refund was just "a click away"
Now I knew that this was definitely not the airline that I was talking to because a refund from the airline would not be processed in that manner. My request from the start was simply to know what the status was of our refund. At that point I ended the conversation.
A few things:
- It would appear that the company, Mercury.io is in fact a legitimate crypto currency platform
- I'm assumping that they wanted the verification number that was sent to me, since they could then set up a phony account with the company under my name, since the identity was now verified,
- And had I continued with the conversation I am sure that the last question would be what credit card was my trip booking made on, because if I had provided them with that, they would then have been free to purchase crypto currency from the company!
The sinister things about this scam from my perspective are:
- I was the one who initiated the contact with the airline, and this appeared to be them following up
- it played on my desire to get this situation resolved, so that it puts people in a more vulnerable position
- The tone and message throughout at the beginning was made to sound very helpful, friendly and reassuring. Each small step was not a red flag, but in hindsight added up to being led down a path.
Some clarification about the 3 questions below:
I provided my licence to a legitimate company, and not to the people doing the scamming. At no point did they receive that information, but it was used to verify my identity to the legitimate organization.
I did not lose money but it is now obvious that this is what they were after
The scammer did not request money during the conversation, but it is my assumption, that with the PIN code from the crypto currency company, they would have then asked for my credit card details, and then would have used it to buy Bitcoin etc.
Scammer's address Canmore, AB, CAN
Type of a scam Phishing
Another version of this scam....