Bengaluru Woman Shares Traumatic Story Of Narrowly Escaping Indigo Scam Attempt

Online scams are soaring in this digital-centric world. From phishing scams to deceptive emails or messages and job scams, cybercriminals are finding more inventive ways to dupe people. With the extensive usage of smartphones and fast internet, risks are increasing, and it is very important to remain cautious against such crimes, or you could lose all your money. Walking along a similar vein, a 32-year-old Bengaluru woman shared her traumatic experience on X about how she recently made a narrow escape and foiled a scam attempt.

As reported by Moneycontrol, the cyber criminals, who posed as Indigo Airlines agents, attempted to make the Bengaluru woman pay around Rs 15,600 on January 8. Though the woman named Mahasweta Pal, a resident of Koramangala, grew dubious after a few questions, she called up the official helpline number of the airlines. Upon reaching out to Indigo Airlines, she discovered that she had just narrowly escaped falling victim to those scamsters.

Mahasweta Pal, a social media manager for Inquest, booked a round-trip Indigo flight to Kolkata. But she was astonished on January 1 when she received a call from a supposed Indigo agent saying that her flight reservation had been cancelled.

While speaking to the portal, the 32-year-old Bengaluru woman said, “The caller proceeded to offer two options: Immediate rebooking at the same fare or a refund of the original booking amount (Rs 15,600) within 24 hours. This purported cancellation was presented as a fact, with no prior notification or explanation provided. The caller told me he could send me a link for repayment on WhatsApp.”

She asked for verification when the scamster sent her fabricated images of the cancellation notice via WhatsApp. This made Mahasweta Pal suspicious, and she disconnected the call and immediately dialled the official helpline number of Indigo to find out that her tickets were indeed cancelled, but it was done by a third party.

Elaborating further to the media outlet, the Bengaluru woman said that the Indigo support staff initially told her that she had cancelled the tickets and there was nothing that they could do to help her except initiate a partial refund of the cancelled tickets, which means Pal would receive around Rs 8,000.

“But when I kept pushing them, they later informed me that someone had altered the information on their website. The customer service representative acknowledged inconsistencies in the cancellation details. My phone number and email address were different from what I had entered,” Pal shared.

She added, “This discrepancy strongly suggests unauthorised access to my account and malicious manipulation of my booking. And while they accepted that there was something wrong, they offered no solution or the rest of my money.”

The 32-year-old kept pursuing the case for more than a week, and eventually took to social media and tagged senior officials of Indigo Airlines, including CEO Pieter Elbers. After this, she started receiving calls from the airlines, offering help.

The media portal further shared an email from an Indigo customer care executive that stated, “I would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you due to the unfortunate fraudulent activity. Please be assured that our digital team is actively collaborating with our cybersecurity experts to address and rectify this issue promptly.”

Unfortunately, Pal had to buy flight tickets again, and the airline stated that it took further steps to ensure the security of her booking. “We have temporarily blocked any modifications or web check-ins to your booking. If you have any further requirements or need to make changes, we kindly request you to contact our IndiGo contact centre for assistance,” the airline said.

Pal went on to say that she also received a call on Tuesday from another executive who told her that a full refund had been initiated for her first booking that was fraudulently cancelled. He even told her that they had experienced problems like this before and that because they are short on manpower, it takes time for them to resolve these issues. But as she shared the incident on social media channels and tagged the CEO, they had to expedite her case, she told Moneycontrol.

Sharing her agony, the woman further expressed on X, “This has left me traumatized and angry. Not only have I been subjected to a deceitful and manipulative attempt at fraud, but I have also incurred the loss of my booked flight and the associated financial expenditure.”

“Despite the clear evidence of fraud and the significant inconvenience caused, my attempts to seek resolution were initially met with minimal assistance. I emailed them with all the details last week, yet the airline has not responded, as usual,” she added.

Hoping that the airlines will take the matter seriously and undergo a thorough investigation into the case, the woman concluded, “I trust that @IndiGo6E will take this matter seriously and act with due diligence to address my concerns and prevent such fraudulent activities from impacting other customers.”

Giving a recent update, Pal took to X and informed that she had finally received her refund. “@IndiGo6E customer care has responded to me in the past few days and sorted this out. Today I received my refund. Though the trauma is still fresh, I am thankful to Sayandeep and the Indigo team for helping me, and I truly appreciate their efforts. I hope this doesn’t happen to anyone,” she wrote.

This traumatic experience for the 32-year-old serves as a reminder to all smartphone users to stay vigilant while dealing with online transactions.