Blue flag scammers target consumers who complain about X | X (formerly Twitter)

Consumers who complain about poor customer service on X are being targeted by scammers after the social media platform formerly known as Twitter changed its account verification process.

Bank customers and airline passengers are among those at risk of phishing scams when they complain to companies via X. Scammers, posing as customer service agents, respond under fake X handles and trick victims into revealing their bank details to get the promised refund.

They usually gain victims’ trust by displaying a blue checkmark icon, which until this year denoted accounts that were officially X verified.

Changes introduced this year allow the icon to be purchased by anyone who pays an £11 monthly fee for the site’s subscription service, which was renamed this month from Twitter Blue to X Premium. Companies paying £950 per month receive a gold label. The X Terms and Conditions do not make it clear whether or not subscribers’ accounts have been pre-screened.

Andrew Thomas was contacted by a fraudulent account after posting a complaint on the Booking.com travel platform. “I’ve been trying since April to get my money back after our holiday trips were canceled and finally resort to X,” he said.

“I received a response asking me to follow them and a direct message [direct message] They have a contact number and then they contacted me via WhatsApp and asked for my reference number so they could investigate. They called me later to tell me that my refund would be done via their payment partner for which I would need to download an app.

Thomas became skeptical and checked X’s profile. “It looked like the real thing, but I noticed an unexpected hyphen in the Twitter handle and that she only joined X in July 2023,” he said.

“I then checked the caller ID in WhatsApp and found that it was a Kenyan number. I have since come across other fake Booking.com Twitter accounts following customers trying to get a refund and have turned to X to air their complaints with the company.

Booking.com returned Thomas’ money after the Guardian intervened, blaming delays on the part of the airline.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We are fully aware of the implications of scams by malicious third parties. If there are any doubts about the legality of an order, customers should always make the mistake of security and contact our official customer service team.

“If a customer chooses to contact us using Twitter, they should always verify that they are using our verified account which has a gold badge to indicate their authenticity.”

Scams take advantage of advice, usually given in consumer guides, to publicly complain to a company on X to get a faster resolution.

In June, passengers on EasyJet and British Airways were cancelled It has been targeted by cybercriminals Using fake profiles after they turned to X to demand a refund. Both companies told The Observer that fraudulent accounts have been reported to X. British Airways has a pinned tweet alerting users to the fake accounts.

Bank customers have been warned to be careful as scammers look for tweets they can exploit to obtain personal account details. A number of Metro customers received text messages from bogus customer service agents after the bank called for online feedback. A company lost £9,200 to the scam.

Recent changes to X’s verification processes have made it more difficult for users to identify trusted accounts, said Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at campaign organization What?

“Making a complaint to a company on social media can be an effective way to get a quick response, but check to make sure it comes from their official account, and if in doubt, contact the company directly using the contact details on their official account. Official website” , She said.

She urged the government to pass the Online Safety Bill, which will pass through Parliament without delay, and ensure it “provides meaningful protection for consumers against the deluge of online fraud that infiltrates the world’s largest social media sites and search engines”.

X has been contacted for comment.