The Qantas scam text every Aussie should know – and how to tell you’re being scammed
- New Qantas scam is trying to steal your money
- Government and airline warn of fraud
Australians are being warned about a new scam text message pretending to be from Qantas.
The fast-spreading fraud tells that the recipient flights are booked in their name with the national airline.
The text will say something like: “CBA: Purchased Qantas ticket for flight QA 2352. If this wasn’t you, please call 02 8355 8255 immediately.”
The flight is not real and the scam only works if someone calls the number provided.
If anyone calls the number, it will be answered by a scammer who will try to get their bank details and then rob them.
Australians are being warned about a new scam text message that appears to be from Qantas, but is really trying to steal their money. The photo shows a Qantas employee
The racket could be tried multiple times on the same person, with minor changes to make it look like it came from a bank or Qantas.
Australian Competition Consumer Commission Scamwatch urged people to be aware of the scam so they don’t fall for it.
“Beware of text messages saying you bought a ticket or making a purchase and asking you to click a link or call a number if it wasn’t you,” according to Scamwatch.
‘This is a scam. Don’t call the number.’
The warning added that people should get in touch Scam watch when they have received the message.
Quantas also has a page advising customers about scams pretending to be from the airline.
“Once in a while we are notified [of] scams and social media posts claiming to be authentic communications from Qantas,” it said.
“Unfortunately, scammers can change sender ID names, making it confusing for the recipient to recognize when a legitimate message has been sent and when it’s a scam.”
It said this may lead people to believe the text is real, but said: ‘We will never ask customers to click on a link to download a file about bookings from any website, including ours.
“We will send important documents related to your booking as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files for you to download immediately.”
Telstra recently started allowing customers to ‘bob’ scammers by opening a ‘SCAM’ line of text to report the scam attempt.
The customers can forward suspicious messages for free to the reporting number 7226 (which means scam on the keypad).
The text (photo) will say something like ‘CBA: Qantas ticket purchased for flight QA 2352. If this wasn’t you, please call 02 8355 8255 immediately’
The company then investigates the source of the deception and reports it to government agencies.
The airline has also warned of scam emails where the sender’s name is ‘QANTAS AIR’ and the sender’s email address is ‘support@journeyfoundation.com’.
The email contains a number of links – including ‘Confirm/Change Booking’ – which refer to ‘qantasair.net’.
“This website is not an authentic Qantas website and these emails are not from us,” the company warned.