A United Airlines passenger claims he was scammed of $17,000 after a United customer service agent unknowingly transferred his call to a scammer.
Dan Smoker, a resident of Denver, said he called the United Airlines customer service number to rebook the flight for him and his family after it was cancelled due to a mechanical issue in May.
Smoker said he was first connected to a United agent to whom he explained the situation and was put on hold, and was then connected to another person who identified himself as "David," who he says turned out to be the scammer. Smoker said he explained the whole situation to David again and asked to be rebooked on a Lufthansa flight from Denver to Munich, Germany. United and Lufthansa are codeshare partners.
According to Smoker, David informed Smoker that he was unable to change the booking, but if he was willing to pay for a new booking right then, he would be refunded for the new flights later on.
Desperate to rescue his family's vacation, Smoker says he agreed, thinking he would be refunded. After Smoker was put on hold, he said David came back on the line, now saying there were no seats available on that flight, but ultimately ended up rebooking Smoker and his family on a flight to London from Denver with a stop in Newark.
"It turns out David called them [United] that morning and worked with their call center people to ultimately get me rebooked. So he put me on hold. He called United and then worked with a United agent to rebook me and my family," Smoker said.
Smoker said he paid $17,000 through a payment link provided by David, which he thought was a legitimate United payment link. He later told ABC News that he did not find the link suspicious, as he's used a payment link for United in the past.
Looking back, Smoker said he realized it was a different link than that of those he'd previously seen.
Smoker said he believed the URL for a payment link should have been a direct pathway through United.com with clear language and direction for the customer.
Smoker said he was informed by David that the refund would be processed within one billing cycle and was sent an email, which was seen by ABC News, that detailed all the refund and payment information.
When it came time to pay his bill, and the refund had still not been processed by July, Smoker said he called David on the direct number he had provided to him. David answered the call and told Smoker he should have gotten the refund and that he needed 24 hours to look into the matter. Smoker said he never heard back from David, and when he tried calling him back, his number had been blocked by David.
Smoker posted on social media, asking United when it will refund his $17,000 and what was going on? Local Denver news station, 9News, which was first to report this story, saw Smoker's post and quickly figured out Smoker had been scammed.
After learning he may have been scammed, Smoker reached out to United to confirm if the $17,000 charge was in United's system, but was informed by the airline that the last charge from this card to the airline was $17 and was made three years ago.
Smoker then filed a report with United Airlines and says he was initially told by United that he had probably dialed the wrong number. Smoker pushed back, saying he called the correct number and says he sent United a PDF with all the information.
"I know it. I know I called the right number," Smoker told ABC. "Because it's one thing to call, call the wrong number entirely and get scammed. It's another thing to call a trusted source, or what you think is a trusted source, and get scammed. And if it's happened to me, I can pretty much guarantee it's happened to other people."
Smoker said that's when United realized it must have been something within its system and was informed that the airline is conducting a full investigation into the matter. Smoker also said the airline refunded him for the upgrades and the hotel booking, but not the $17,000, since that was not charged by United. Smoker said he disputed the $17,000 charge on his American Express card and is hopeful he will get the money back.
Once United started looking into the matter, it told Smoker the call on its end lasted roughly 13 minutes, but Smoker's call records, which were reviewed by ABC News, show he was connected to United for more than three hours, he said.
United Airlines told ABC that the initial investigation shows a United agent was doing her best to help Smoker, and because he was trying to book on another airline, the agent googled the other airline's phone number and transferred him to a scammer by accident. The agent was supposed to use an internal system to look up the phone number, but didn't follow proper protocol, the carrier told ABC News. United is working with American Express to make the situation right for Smoker, the airline said.
"We've been in direct contact with the customer to understand what happened in this case, and we are reviewing this matter thoroughly," United Airlines said in a statement to ABC. "We're committed to finding a fair resolution for him."
What happened with Smoker is categorized as a business imposter scam, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where the scammer impersonates a business or government agency or another entity an individual might trust. This is one of the top complaints of fraud reported to the FTC by the public. Airlines have been among the top spoofed companies. Experts say scammers post fake customer service phone numbers for airlines and they often are the top search result when a customer searches Google.
Data from the FTC shows that there were more than 500,000 reports of imposter fraud in the first half of 2025, with over $1.6 billion reported in losses.
"This is a cautionary tale for businesses and for everyone. If people are looking for contact information online, they need to be very careful and click on naturally occurring search results," said Kati Daffan, Assistant Director in the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices. "What we see is that scammers will place paid advertisements and try to trick people into thinking that that's the real contact information for a business or for a government agency even. And so it's really important that folks know to look for those natural search results, not the paid ads."
Daffan said that a lot of fraud and scams go unreported due to the shame people feel from losing money or because of the lack of time to file a complaint to the FTC.
"It is critically important for people to report scams to the FTC if it happens to you or someone you know, or even if you just see it in the marketplace, that is a huge public service, because we and other law enforcement agencies use that information every day, both to figure out what are the latest scams, and to provide people with information about that, to do research, and importantly, to bring law enforcement cases and even reach out to the people who are affected, so that we have witnesses for those cases," Daffan said.
When someone reports fraud to the FTC, the individual will be informed whether or not they were scammed and what steps to take next. Although the FTC says it cannot open a case for every single report filed, since there are too many, reporting the fraud does help as it goes into the FTC's database.
"So even if we can't bring a case about every complaint, our hope is that between us and other law enforcement, this is people's best chance to get their complaint in front of someone who's in a position to take action," Daffan said.
Some tips from Daffan on how to prevent yourself from being a victim of a fraud are: Verifying before engaging-- check to confirm that the phone number, email or website is credible. Never transfer or send money to an unknown person, especially if they urge you to make the transfer quickly. Talk to a trusted individual about any account and identity verification issues and don't just believe random calls and emails from people claiming issues. Lastly, don't click on any links or phone numbers from unexpected text messages.
Smoker says he is still waiting to hear how American Express and United Airlines are going to make it right and get him back his money.
