What was meant to be a 30th anniversary river cruise through Europe ended with a Louisville-area couple losing more than $10,000 to an airline imposter scam, despite months of failed appeals to their credit card company.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Karla and Charles Spencer of St. Matthews planned a September trip featuring windmills, castles, and stops along the Rhine River in Germany, France, and Switzerland. About a month before the trip, Charles Spencer said he ran into problems with his airline app and searched online for what he believed was United Airlines’ customer service number.
“I’m a highly educated, experienced professional,” he said. “I’m an engineer and I was fooled.”
Karla Spencer said the person on the phone claimed there was an issue with their flights.
“There never was an error,” she said.
Charles Spencer was told he needed to pay $10,298 using his credit card to fix the booking and that the amount would be refunded.
“The thing that made this so believable — they were able to come up with very detailed information about my flight,” he said.
The couple received an email from the scammer confirming the payment and stating a refund would arrive in October. It never did.
Charles Spencer said the caller sounded legitimate.
“I looked on a website where I was searching for contact numbers for United Airlines,” he said. “That was what came up in the search. I didn’t look up the metadata to see if it was a plain fake or spoof.”
He said he realized something was wrong almost immediately.
“About one minute after I completed the transaction, nothing came through. The credit did not come through,” he said. “Right after that, we contacted the credit card company.”
Charles Spencer canceled the card and received a replacement.
When the couple called the number that appeared on their credit card statement, the person who answered said they worked with all airlines. When asked about the Spencers’ transaction, the person responded, “You have the wrong number,” and hung up.
An online search showed the same phone number listed on two travel booking websites. One appeared professional, while the other contained typos and grammatical errors. Searches for reviews of the sites produced no results.
Karla Spencer later called the number again and said the operation is still active.
“They are the scum of the earth,” she said.
According to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker, nearly 2,500 people nationwide have reported being victims of airline and travel website imposter scams. United Airlines advises customers to use contact information only from united.com or its official app, and to report suspicious websites to Google, the Federal Trade Commission, or the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The Spencers filed multiple disputes with Bank of America, their credit card company, but all were denied.
“They said they had seen the first request come through for payment and they flagged it and refused it,” Charles Spencer said. “They tried again, and this time they accepted it. They had an approval from me, not about anybody faking that. I thought it was legitimate.”
Karla Spencer said the ongoing uncertainty has added stress.
“It’s stressful when you owe,” she said. “We wonder if they’re going to turn it over to collections. We might be stuck having to pay it.”
A Bank of America spokesperson said the company’s team is investigating the case.
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