Darwen pensioner in air ticket scam alert (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Darwen pensioner in air ticket scam alert

5:00pm Friday 18th January 2013 in News By Dan Clough, Reporter

A DARWEN pensioner has warned people to be wary of an email scam after almost becoming victim to one herself.

Eileen Eastham, of Milton Close, said she was shocked to receive an email from British Airways, which said it contained a receipt for her e-ticket.

Mrs Eastham, who said she does not use air travel, was wise to the attempted ‘phishing’ and immediately advised British Airways and the police about the email.

She said: “I got an email on Wednesday supposedly from BA.

“It said the e-ticket for my flight was attached and thanked me for booking it.

“It had all the itinerary there and lots of background information about BA, so it all looked very legitimate.”

Mrs Eastham said she was suspicious about the email so had called the police. She said: “It is a scam that BA are aware of.

“Apparently it has been running since November.

“I printed the email off and I told everyone in my address book about it.

“I just want to warn people as anyone could be easily fooled by the scam.

“I sent it to a friend in Scotland who was in the process of booking a holiday so someone like that could easily fall for it.”

A spokeswoman for British Airways said the company’s name was often used in email scams.

She said: “If you receive an email you were not expecting, do not click on any links or open or download any attachments.

“These emails are not from British Airways and the claims made about British Airways within them are false. They are unscrupulous attempts to secure your personal information or extort money from you.

“Legitimate emails from British Airways will contain your booking reference and the email will not have been sent from a web-based mail server such as gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.

“In addition, we will never request money payments through a third party or promise you any kind of cash prize.

“Please forward suspected email scams to phishing @email.ba.com and we will investigate its authenticity and take appropriate action.”