Scammers are attempting to take advantage of the travel chaos across the Middle East by impersonating airline support accounts on social media.
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Passengers addressing public tweets to airlines including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Gulf Air are being replied to by unofficial accounts.
These accounts, which claim to be from the airline help desk, are asking travellers to share their contact details including their name, phone number and email address, presumably to continue the scam on another platform like WhatsApp.
Emirates, the UAE’s flag carrier, has warned passengers on X to “be wary of imposter accounts”, noting that its only official accounts are @emirates and @emiratessupport.
Tens of thousands of passengers are currently stranded in cities across the region due to airspace closures and flight cancellations.
Airlines are telling customers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport, with many turning to social media platforms to ask for information from their carrier directly ahead of a scheduled flight.
X, formally known as Twitter, first launched a verification for notable accounts in 2009. Under the old system, the platform awarded blue ticks after taking steps to check the account was owned by the organisation it claimed to represent.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in 2022, that system has changed.
Now, the blue checkmark denotes that the user has a subscription to X Premium, while a gold checkmark means that an account is an official organisation through Premium Business. Grey checkmarks mean the account represents a government organisation or official.
Airlines include links to their official social media pages, including accounts on X, on their websites. Aside from the main account, many have specific pages dedicated to support, which may be listed in their X bios.
For example, @Etihad links out to @EtihadHelp, while @QatarAirways points passengers to @QRSupport.
Passengers need to be careful as many of the imposter accounts use similar usernames to make the trick more believable.