Scammers posing as customer service agents on X as companies leave platform
Since X, formerly Twitter, changed its terms of service, fewer companies are offering customer service via the platform. Scammers are taking advantage of that by posing as companies’ customer services and actively approaching customers who have questions, RTL Nieuws reports.
The name is one of many things that changed at Twitter since Elon Musk took over. Another change is that it is no longer always possible for companies to load questions asked via DM on the platform into their customer service systems. Many companies, therefore, no longer offer customer service on X.
KLM is one such company. “Due to the recent changes to Twitter’s terms and conditions, our customer service through this platform is currently unavailable,” the Dutch airline warns in a post pinned to its profile.
However, customers must click to KLM’s profile to see that warning - it doesn’t pop up when sending the airline a post. And scammers take advantage of that by actively approaching customers who ask the airline public questions on X.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” a scammer responded to a KLM customer’s post, using an account with KLM in the handle and the company logo in their profile. “Please send your telephone number so that we can help you.” According to RTL, people who send their numbers are then approached on WhatsApp, where the scammers ask for private information and credit card details.
“It’s a known problem,” a KLM spokesperson told the broadcaster. The company reports all fake accounts it spots to X. “But a few days later, another fake account pops up.”
Other companies affected by this problem include several foreign banks, Turkish Airlines, British Airways, Ryanair, Hotels.com, and LastMinute.com.
There are several ways to check whether an X account approaching you is reliable, according to RTL’s tech editor, Harm Teunis. “First, check whether there is a checkmark next to the account name and what color that checkmark is.” Accounts with a blue checkmark used to be verified, but anyone who pays for a subscription now gets a blue checkmark. “Verified accounts have a golden checkmark.”
You can also check when an account was created, how many followers the account has, and check its username and handle. “You cannot change the handle if the name is already in use. @KLM is already taken by the real company, so scammers use @KLM210, for example.” Grammatical errors can also indicate that things are dodgy.
