Passenger loses 17,000 dollars after hotline call

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• A passenger from Denver fell victim to a scam after calling the official United Airlines hotline and lost 17,000 dollars.
• Although he spoke to a supposed employee for hours and received a rebooking, the confirmation and charge did not come from the airline.
• United is investigating the case, but the exact background remains unclear.

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Digital scams are on the rise - including in air travel. In addition to identity theft and the misuse of payment data, unexplained ticket cancellations at Swiss have already been an issue in Switzerland on several occasions. Now a case in the USA is causing a stir:

Passenger Dan Smoker from Denver wanted to travel to Europe with his family. After his United flight was canceled due to a technical fault, he contacted the airline's customer service number. According to "9News", he spoke for almost three hours with an alleged employee named "David", who organized a rebooking - but for a charge of 17,000 dollars.

David promised a refund, but this never materialized. Weeks later, it turned out that the email confirmation was fake and the payment had gone to a third-party company.

According to United, the call only took 12 minutes

United Airlines confirmed that Smoker's call was registered in the call center. According to internal data, however, this call only lasted twelve minutes. It is unclear how the discrepancy came about.

The airline is investigating, but is keeping details under wraps. Smoker has since reported the case to his credit card company.