Our reporter Xie Lan Intern reporter Liang Aonan
The Tomb Sweeping Day holiday is approaching, and the peak of travel, such as traveling and sacrificial sweeps, is coming, so the fraud of ticket refunding and rebooking has started again. According to the investigation by the reporter of Securities Daily, complaints about the fraud of "ticket refunding and rebooking" are common on social networking platforms and complaint platforms. Many passengers posted that even though they finally saw through the tricks of the swindler, the repeated routines were still frightening.
Recently, a Sichuan netizen sent a document saying that after booking a ticket through an airline company, he received a phone call from a staff member who claimed to be an airline company, saying that the flight was delayed and that he would give insurance and reschedule compensation. After the netizen operated according to his instructions, he found that the travel software did not have a prompt for flight rescheduling, which made him realize that it was a fraud. The netizen believed that such deception could easily deceive middle-aged and elderly people with low awareness of prevention, so they should be vigilant.
On the eve of tourists' travel, fraudsters often use strange numbers to pretend to be airlines or OTA customer services, and promise to provide compensation for flight cancellation, delay or failure. Some passengers believed his words and downloaded the software, shared the screen, showed the collection code and even entered the bank card information according to his instructions. As a result, not only did they not get "compensation", but also their personal deposits "disappeared".
Some people in the civil aviation industry pointed out to the reporter of Securities Daily that this kind of fraud caught the nervous psychology of passengers who were worried about the changes of their travel before they went out. In addition to the temptation of refund compensation, passengers are easy to be fooled.
So, how should we see through the fraud of "ticket refund and endorsement"? Some practitioners in the tourism industry pointed out to the reporter, first, pay attention to the phone number, and the airline or OTA will only contact tourists through the official phone; Second, we need to be alert to the "compensated" script. When the caller actively tells the passenger that he or she will make compensation and needs to download the specified software, it can be basically determined as a fraud; Third, never "share the screen". The other party will cheat passengers to provide bank account, password, mobile phone verification code, or open the screen sharing function under the pretext of "a small amount of service charge is required for ticket change", "verification of face and video records is required for refund", and "verification code is required to confirm the ticket change information".
"If it is still impossible to determine whether the other party is a fraud, tourists should check the flight change information on the official website of the airline company or OTA in a timely manner," said the above civil aviation industry insiders.
In fact, in the air ticket booking process, airlines, OTAs, agents, operators and other parties are closely linked. Zhong Lan'an, senior partner of Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, pointed out to the reporter of Securities Daily that the imposter could accurately tell the passenger's name and flight information, which may be the result of information leakage. There may also be some virus programs on the passenger's personal mobile phone, thus causing the risk of information leakage. However, from the perspective of civil litigation, it is difficult to define a specific information disclosure counterpart. However, no matter which channel you use to obtain information, you should bear the corresponding legal responsibility.
According to the lawyer, the formal ticket purchase platform has a perfect information security mechanism, which can avoid risks. We should be alert to some social or second-hand trading platforms. Non official channels often lack adequate security measures, let alone the so-called ticket purchasing agents.
According to the reporter's inquiry, the airline and OTA are continuing to prevent fraud. For example, on the ticket booking page on the official website of China Eastern Airlines, a pop-up prompt is displayed for the return and change fraud; After booking a ticket on Ctrip Travel App, the confirmation message received also contains tips for fraud prevention.
"With the advancement of the digital wave, travel services such as ticket booking are increasingly moving online. Although online platforms have achieved remarkable results in improving customer experience, they are also facing new challenges in information security protection." Zhu Keli, executive director of the China Information Association and founding president of the National Research Institute of New Economics, told the Securities Daily reporter that in contrast, Official platforms often have higher-level data encryption and privacy protection technologies to ensure that consumers' personal information is fully and effectively protected during transmission and storage.
Lawyer Zhong Lan'an said: "According to the Personal Information Protection Law and the Civil Code, passenger information is subject to strict legal protection. Airlines, OTAs and other relevant parties bear the legal responsibility for strict confidentiality of customer information. However, many information leakage incidents often go nowhere. The important reason why illegal acts occur frequently is that the gains they bring far exceed the possible losses. Therefore, we call on the government departments to investigate and deal with such cases in accordance with the law and will not condone. "
(Editor Cai Shandan)
