St. John's woman notes every step of a new flight scam on social media
When Jo-Anne Galarneau's flight to St. John's was delayed last week, she posted her frustration on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
She publicly tweeted at Air Canada, asking for a resolution — and received responses from nine different accounts claiming to be Air Canada agents.
"They had the Air Canada logo ... saying they were supervisors, [but] they didn't have any followers. So that triggered some alarm bells for me," she said. So she ignored the messages and went directly to the company's website.
A few days later, she noticed she kept getting messages from agents saying they could resolve her issues.
"Curiosity got the best of me," she said. "So I played along."
They asked for her booking reference number and, using that, obtained her phone number. They then contacted her via the messaging app WhatsApp. She says she was concerned about how they were able to get her number as it wasn't in any email or booking reference.
Then they asked her to download an app called Remitly — an international money transfer app.
"There was no Canada-to-Canada ability to transfer funds," she said, noting she could only make transfers to countries like Kenya. That triggered more alarm bells, she said.
The person on the other side of the screen assured her they would reimburse her money in Kenyan dollars: all they needed was her bank account number. By that point, after documenting and screen recording all the interactions with them, she blocked their number and sent all the information she had to Air Canada and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Air Canada response
In an emailed statement to CBC, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick says social media scams are a common problem that has increased in recent months.
"Our social media team is very active answering customer questions and helping resolve situations," said Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick.
"Through our verified account on X, for example, we will ask customers to DM us, but we will not ask them to send or make available personal or financial information via social media."
He adds that it's an especially challenging situation because they rely on third-party companies, such as social media platforms, to remove the scammers' accounts.
On the Air Canada website, there are warnings and information to customers and links to the company's legitimate social media accounts.
Money losses over online fraud keep rising
"It's very common for fraudsters to target anyone in a vulnerable situation, no matter what that situation is," says Jeff Horncastle, a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
He says the centre hasn't seen a lot of cases similar to Galarneau's.
Online scams conducted through the internet, he says, such as social media, email, and text messages, account for 75 per cent of reported losses to the centre, adding up to $567 million in losses in 2023.
And that number keeps growing, he says.
People who are under pressure to resolve their issues quickly might be at risk of taking any opportunity that comes their way to fix it, he says — that's why people should take the time to carefully check who they are corresponding with, and better yet, to contact the company through a direct phone number or their website.
Galarneau says it was her ability to be social media savvy that made her aware of all the red flags.
"When you have flight cancellations and you have these stressful situations, individuals are just willing to have anyone help them that they can," she said.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Peter Cowan
