Those who remove the luggage label from their suitcase at the airport to run the risk that crooks will benefit from it.
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Attempted scam: Do not throw luggage labels at the airport
In a Post Reddit, a Delta Air Lines employee warns against throwing luggage labels at the airport.
Are you one of those who only remove the luggage labels when it is time to go back on a trip? So you are not only head in the air, but you also prevent insurance fraud. At least that is what a Reddit user, who says, says to work at the luggage service of Delta Air Lines.
According to him, the number of compensation requests for missing objects has been increasing in recent times. The crooks would observe travelers who throw their luggage labels at the airport and fly them into the trash cans. The information on the labels would then allow them to make compensation requests. “Be careful and do not remove your luggage label at the airport. Scholars can get enough information on your trip to request compensation, ”reads the publication.
The luggage label is used for your recorded luggage to arrive in the right place.
IMAGO/Pond5 Images“Does Delta not check who requires compensation?”
On Reddit, users are skeptical and ask: “No one checks who requests?”. The Delta employee explains in the comments How the scam is supposed to operate: the luggage label indicates the name, the flight number and another number. For the compensation request, the crook creates an email address under this name, as well as a telephone number and a random address. “This is enough to submit such a request, especially if you have reserved via a third -party service provider.”
What Swissport says about the possible attempted scam through luggage labels
The SWISSPORT service company, which deals with the luggage followed as well as the declarations of damage and losses on behalf of numerous airlines in the world, specifies at the request of “20 minutes”: “a luggage label is in no way sufficient to assert a compensation request”. According to Swissport, the scam described on Reddit is therefore not so simple. The luggage concerned would be the subject of a digital recording via a scan system involving several stages throughout the trip and therefore generally located in order to prevent fraud attempts.
In the event of a declaration of damage, photographic evidence is also necessary according to the airline, as written by Swissport. “Often, you must also present the boarding card or the assessment by an approved repair partner”.
For damage declarations, the boarding card must also be presented in many cases, according to Swissport.
IMAGO/PASSIONIt is nevertheless better not to throw your documents at the airport, according to Swissport. As with all travel documents containing personal data, the Service Company recommends that they do not throw luggage labels in areas accessible to the public as the airport. “They should rather be destroyed at home, for example in a paper grinding,” said Swissport.
It is also best not to throw your boarding pass at the airport
It is also advisable not to throw your boarding pass at the airport either, or even to post it online before the trip. Apart from the many personal data that appears there, it is above all the barcode that poses a problem, as the NordVPN VPN supplier points out: “The hackers can scan the barcode and discover information such as the full name of the traveler, the reservation number, the passenger file and sometimes even the contact details”.
As the Check24 consumer site also explains, the published barcode could also be used. Indeed, it is also used for loyalty programs such as Miles & More and, with the corresponding application, a third party can connect to your large traveler customer account and spend credit. The crooks could cancel return flights or modify the details of future flights.