TBM Staff - Mumbai
A recent incident involved an IndiGo passenger falling victim to online fraud following a family vacation. Nishith Chaturvedi, residing in Noida, North India, and traveling with seven family members, had booked an IndiGo flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi on January 7. Initially, everything seemed routine as Chaturvedi proceeded with the web check-in for the flight. However, when confronted with an additional fee for seat selection, he reached out to IndiGo via X (formerly known as Twitter).
Shortly after, he received a response from an individual claiming to be an IndiGo customer support executive, requesting his PNR (Passenger Name Record) number. While such requests are standard for airline issue resolution, Chaturvedi soon discovered that this was not a legitimate interaction.
Tickets canceled without authorisation
Chaturvedi had initially booked the tickets through the Cleartrip travel portal and subsequently received an email stating that the entire group’s tickets had been canceled. Disturbed by this unexpected development, he promptly contacted the airline to address the issue. IndiGo suggested that Cleartrip might have initiated the cancellation, a claim denied by Cleartrip. With the flight departure looming in a few hours, Chaturvedi faced a dilemma regarding whether to wait for resolution or rebook the tickets.
Expressing his frustration, he mentioned to Moneycontrol, “Indigo was unwilling to acknowledge the security lapse. Additionally, the ticket value exceeded Rs 72,000. This was a substantial amount, and securing new tickets would entail an overall expense of around Rs 1.5 lakh. Affording such an additional cost for something not my fault was unreasonable. Despite the time pressure, I ended up purchasing new tickets but persisted in pursuing a refund.”
IndiGo’s Guidance
Fortunately, IndiGo promptly refunded Chaturvedi when they discovered that an online fraudster had obtained his PNR, manipulated contact details on the airline’s system, and cancelled the booking.
IndiGo is now cautioning customers against sharing their PNR or contact information with unauthorised individuals or websites and discourages publishing such details on public platforms like X.
