Last summer a former boss visited Madagascar. Her tickets were issued by Delta, and her first flight on Air France was cancelled. She called the phone number on the itinerary her travel agent had provided for Delta and she was charged $1,000 for two passengers to have their flights moved to the next day. Then I got a phone call to ask if that seemed right?

The number on her itinerary wasn’t actually Delta’s phone number. It was the number for a scam travel agency, who did re-issue her tickets! They just charged her for something she was entitled to for free. She didn’t go back to her travel agency on this, even though they’d led her astray with the wrong number, but eventually after about 9 months Delta made it right and refunded the extra charges.

This problem is… more common than it seems? A passenger bought Singapore Airlines tickets online and then decided to call their U.S. customer service line to change their seat assignments. They looked up the number on their American Express statement underneath the charge, since they happened to be logged into the Amex website, and came up with 800-742-3333. The agent picked up right away and informed them a seat change costs $200.

I did notice that this number was different than the number provided on the singapore airlines page (*RED FLAG #1*). But i still decided to call the one listed on the Amex page (800) 742-3333, figuring that maybe Amex has a number with shorter queues.

When I called the number (800)742-3333 first I was surprised that someone picked up almost immediately (*RED FLAG #2* which reservation/support line connects you directly with almost no waiting).

Next when i asked about seat change, I was told that there would be a $200 charge for seat change. (*RED FLAG #3* I have flown with SQ a few times before and there has never been any charge for seat changes in the same class)

They hung up, worked out that the phone number was a scam, and decided to call back,

I decided to call them back again. Again, after almost no wait someone picked up. This time the person that picked up represented themselves as “reservation center” and i asked them if they work for American Airlines, and they responded that they work for all major airlines.

It’s not the first report about this number, where a customer was given bad information – and pressured to agree to a charge before disconnecting the call.

If you Google the phone number, the Singapore Airlines website comes up as the first result. The number is no longer on Singapore’s site, however. Another result is the Star Alliance website, though the Star site actually shows the current and correct number for Singapore’s customer service.

It seems the change, though, wasn’t in the past year and a half.

Thank you for clarifying, Tessie. You may wish to get in touch with our reservations team at +1 (833) 727-0118* (toll free within USA). Alternatively, you may also send a message via https://t.co/HT4LXP03vX and our colleagues will get back to you on your concerns. Thank you.

— Singapore Airlines (@SingaporeAir) September 7, 2021

We have a Singapore Airlines phone number that’s since been changed, and scammers appear to have taken over the old number. That’s incredibly useful for them because people search for the Singapore Airlines phone number, find this one on numerous websites around the internet (but not Singapore’s own website!). It’s even reportedly still showing up on American Express cardmember statements. So people call it – getting a real ‘travel agent’ who takes over a reservation for inflated fees.