Airline loyalty points are often an easy target for phishing scams.
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If you haven’t checked your airline rewards balances in several months, now may be a good time. Email scammers were out in force over the holiday season, and their main target was airline points and miles, according to a new global study from Bitdefender.
Researchers at the cybersecurity technology company found that 60% of travel-themed spam emails sent between December 20, 2022 and January 10, 2023 were, in fact, scams. Just over half (53%) of phishing emails targeted inboxes in the U.S., with the next-most targeted country, Ireland, far behind at 10%.
According to the report, many of the phishing scams “abused the names of well-known airlines to gain access to users’ sensitive information and travel rewards or loyalty accounts.”
Consumers were lured by phony emails from carriers including Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Ryanair, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM using phony subject lines such as:
· Congratulations! A United Airlines reward has arrived!
· Congrats! You’ve received a Southwest Airlines reward
· Shopper, You can qualify to get a $90 American Airlines gift card!
· Confirmed Your American Airlines Reward
“Airline loyalty programs are highly desired digital assets for cybercriminals as they contain a wide variety of personally identifiable information on travelers and airline points that can be monetized on the dark web,” according to Bitdefender researchers….
