Urgent travel warning issued to passengers of Ryanair, British Airways and more

A consumer watchdog has sounded the alarm for all holidaymakers flying with major airlines.

Which? has exposed a scam involving fake accounts for Wizz, Ryanair, British Airways, EasyJet, and Jet2 that mimic official carriers to trick people into divulging personal information.

Travellers often turn to platforms like X, formally known as Twitter, to seek assistance when faced with flight delays, questions, or issues. It’s common for airlines to move these conversations to direct messages, during which personal data is shared.

The organisation warns that it’s particularly when using social media to report an issue that passengers are most vulnerable, as scammers swoop in to respond to the query or complaint, leading customers to unwittingly engage with fraudulent accounts, reports Bristol Live.

In a telling experiment, a Which? investigator reached out to the legitimate Wizz Air X account, @wizzair, only to be almost immediately approached by two counterfeit profiles. Thy stated: “Both used near-identical language, apologising for the inconvenience, stating that they had ‘already escalated this matter to the relevant department’ and requesting a ‘reachable WhatsApp number for assistance’ via DM [direct message].”

Which? has revealed that it found fraudulent profiles pretending to be every major UK airline on Twitter, noting that reporting these fake accounts has only a ‘limited effect’. EasyJet as per Which?’s account continues to expose hoax profiles, whereas Jet2 is reportedly aware of unverified accounts and keeps reminding its clients to stay cautious and report any uncertain activities.

As for Wizz Air, the company confirmed it’s witnessing an increase in counterfeited accounts on Twitter. TUI expressed their stance stating: “We regularly monitor for any accounts impersonating Tui on social media and report accordingly for the online safety of our customers. Customers should ensure that they are only interacting with @tuiuk, which is marked with a blue tick next to it.”

Responses were not provided by British Airways, Ryanair, and Virgin Atlantic when Which? sought out comments. A Twitter spokesperson assured the BBC by saying: “On X, you may not misappropriate the identity of individuals, groups, or organisations or use a fake identity to deceive others.”

Further adding: “Accounts that pose as another person, group, or organisation in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under X’s misleading and deceptive identities policy.”

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