Frequent flyers beware: New scam targets Hilton Head residents’ unused airline miles
Globe-trotting residents of Hilton Head Island should be cautious of a newly emerging scam that targets the stockpiles of unused airline miles in travelers’ accounts.
Within two days, police received two reports of stolen points from “long-standing” American Airlines account holders on Hilton Head. In each case, unauthorized users redeemed about 100,000 miles from their AAdvantage profiles, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident reports.
The value of each victim’s stolen points was about $1,000, a deputy wrote, noting that it was “unknown” how the accounts were compromised.
In both cases, the victims were alerted to the suspected loyalty fraud by emails informing them about an unauthorized login to their account in early May, the reports say.
Experts warn of ‘black market’ for airline miles
Scammers nationwide have begun targeting travel points, which experts say are especially vulnerable to theft because airline accounts are infrequently used and rarely monitored.
“There is an entire black market for these points. (Criminals) can convert them into dollars,” Kim Sutherland of LexisNexis Risk Solutions told the AARP. Some users aren’t even aware they have accumulated thousands of airline miles and are “sitting on gold mines,” she added.
After redeeming the miles from victims’ accounts, the scammers convert the points into gift cards or buy airline tickets to sell to unsuspecting travelers, according to media reports.
California news station KCRA reported earlier this month about a man reported losing 449,500 American Airlines miles, valued at over $13,000. He and another victim said their points were restored after they filed police reports.
To protect themselves from the theft, travelers are encouraged to update their passwords and enable multifactor authentication, American Airlines told the station.
