Travel scams: airline customers targeted by fake accounts on X

Scammers are infiltrating genuine customer queries and complaints on X (formerly Twitter) to target customers of major airlines. 

Frustrated customers often take to social media to ask companies for help, but Which? has found that scammers are impersonating trusted brands with ease. 

Which? first reported fraudsters posing as easyJet customer service reps in July 2023, but the scam has returned and we've found fake customer service accounts for every major airline operating in the UK. 

Here, we expose the scam and explain how you can stay safe on social media.

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Dodgy customer service accounts

Scammers crawl social media – often using bots (a type of automated software) – to quickly find customers contacting an airline. 

They then respond to your query or complaint hoping you won't notice you're being contacted by a fake account. 

For example, a Which? researcher, who contacted the genuine Wizz Air X (formerly Twitter) account (@wizzair) to ask if a flight was delayed, received responses from two fake accounts almost immediately. 

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). 

We found examples of bogus X accounts impersonating every major airline operating in the UK, including British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Tui, Virgin Atlantic and Wizz Air. 

We also discovered that fake accounts are often quicker to respond than the genuine airlines, but they also interrupt existing conversations between you and airlines, which can be harder to spot. 

We also found examples of scammers asking for enough data to commit identity fraud or sell on to other criminals.

In terms of tactics, a scam account may:

• ask you to send a DM with your phone number and other sensitive data (they may ask for your booking reference or flight number first, to appear legitimate)
• direct you to click on links to phishing websites that harvest your card details 
• claim you are entitled to 'compensation' or owe a small fee to resolve your issue to trick you into downloading a payment app (examples reported to Which? include Remitly, Skrill and WorldRemit) 
• pay for a blue tick verification on X to appear legitimate.

Is enough being done about fake accounts?

Reporting fake accounts to X seems to have limited success. Most of the posts and accounts we flagged as impersonation scams using the X reporting feature were still live at the time of writing.

When Which? told the X press office about this, it said: 'All accounts you have mentioned have been suspended for violating the X Rules', but offered no further comment.

When we asked seven airlines if they could confirm how many fake accounts they had reported to X so far this year, none gave us a direct answer, and none would confirm if they had considered leaving X due to the prevalence of fake accounts targeting their customers. 

British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic didn’t respond at all.

• An easyJet spokesperson said: ‘We continue to report fake accounts to X so they can take any necessary action and we advise customers to only follow and engage with our sole official channel @easyJet, which is identifiable by the gold verification badge for official businesses, for the latest updates or to seek support and to be vigilant and to not engage with or click on any links from other accounts.’
• Jet2 told us: ‘We are aware of unverified accounts contacting customers on social media, and we have a proactive programme of communications to remind customers to be aware, and to report any suspicious activity. If we learn of any such activity taking place, our absolute priority is to let customers know so that any potential fraudulent activity can be prevented. We also report the account to the appropriate social media company, and we have a regular dialogue with them.’
• Tui said: ‘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. If it is, then customers can be assured they are talking to Tui, if not they shouldn’t provide any details and should report the page so the social platform can take action.’
• Wizz Air said: 'We have seen a rise in fake accounts on X and we report as many unofficial accounts as possible. We continue to report fake social media accounts and would like to remind customers to never give their personal details out on these channels. Passengers should contact customer service via our claims or call centres. Details on how to contact us can be found on the Wizz Air website.'

How to spot fake X accounts 

Before engaging with a company on social media, check its official website for links to its social media profiles. 

Here are the genuine X accounts for seven major airlines:

• @British_Airways (with a gold verification tick)
• @easyJet (with a gold verification tick)
• @jet2tweets (with a gold verification tick)
• @askryanair
• @tuiuk (with a blue verification tick)
• @VirginAtlantic (with a gold verification tick)
• @wizzair (with a blue verification tick)

It’s also sensible to check when an account joined X and how many followers it has; for example, the fake X account @AskAirWizz joined in February 2024 and had only 217 followers at the time of writing. The real @wizzair account, which joined in July 2012, has more than, 80,000 followers. 

Airlines will never ask for your bank or card details over social media, so any requests for financial data are an immediate red flag.

Social media can be useful for minor queries, but never give personal details. Instead, contact customer services via the relevant claims or call centres. Details on how to contact your chosen airline can be found on its website.

• Read more: 7 ways to secure your social media accounts

What to do if you’ve been scammed

If you’ve sent your card details to a scammer, or lost money to a scam, call your bank immediately (using the number on the back of your card or on your statements) and report the scam to Action Fraud, or Police Scotland on 101 if you live in Scotland.

Giving away sensitive details, such as an email address, can be enough for a scammer to access your accounts. Be extra-vigilant in case you are targeted with more scams and increase your security by changing your passwords and setting up two-factor authentication. 

You should also report the offending account to the relevant social media platform. 

Frustratingly, this may not always result in its removal, but under the new Online Safety Act, tech firms including X could eventually be fined for failing to remove harmful and fraudulent content from their platforms.

To report something on X, click on the three dots and select ‘report’ from the dropdown menu. You can also report individual tweets, again by clicking the three dots above the tweet. 

• Find out more: report scams to help others