Home Money A hacker stole 181,000 Avios from me: will I get them back? CRANE IN THE CASE

A hacker stole 181,000 Avios from me: will I get them back? CRANE IN THE CASE

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Points reduced: DK's British Airways Executive Club account was hacked and his Avios transferred to someone else, along with his companion vouchers

In late November, I noticed strange activity on my personal email account.

I started receiving hundreds of spam emails an hour, so I changed my password and thought that was the end of it.

But in mid-December I suffered an unpleasant surprise when checking in for a British Airways flight. I logged into my Executive Club account, but noticed that the email address and phone number registered in my account had changed.

My Avios – about 180,800 – had been transferred to someone else and my three companion vouchers had disappeared.

I logged off and called BA on the Silver number. I was told to change my account email address to regain access and to do so by completing an online form.

This was confusing as it asked for my “current email”. I didn’t know whether to put my email address or the one the scammer had changed for me. I checked with the person on the phone and they told me to enter the scammer’s email.

I later spoke to a manager who told me the advice was incorrect and that my details would be passed to the “audit team”. I haven’t been able to access my account since and I’m worried that filling out the form may have given the scammer more details.

I was told I would receive an email about how to regain access to my account, but this has not happened yet, or perhaps it has reached the scammer’s email address. DK, London

Points reduced: DK’s British Airways Executive Club account was hacked and his Avios transferred to someone else, along with his companion vouchers

Helen Crane, consumer advocate for This is Money, responds: Losing a few loyalty points may not seem like a big deal to the uninitiated.

However, the Executive Club and Avios have become an obsession among loyal British Airways travelers, as evidenced by the reaction when it recently announced it would be changing the rules from April 1.

Putting a monetary value on Avios is a complicated issue, as they can be worth more or less depending on how you choose to spend them.

However, yours should be worth at least £1,800. And whatever the value of your Avios, the three companion vouchers basically double it under the current system.

The vouchers, which are earned by spending £15,000 on the British Airways American Express credit card in one year, allow you to take a friend on a flight with you without spending extra Avios points.

It appears that what happened in November was that someone gained access to your email account.

They may have been able to guess your password, or it could have been part of a data breach and ended up for sale on the dark web, which is unfortunately very common.

For a criminal, being inside your email account is like being a kid in a candy store. They searched for anything that might have some monetary value and found an email from the Executive Club.

They were then able to change their password. He later found an email from British Airways asking him to set up two-factor authentication, something that didn’t occur to him at the time due to the volume of emails he received.

Your hard-earned points that you accumulated over many years were transferred to someone you didn’t know.

CRANE IN THE CASE

In our weekly column, This is Money consumer expert Helen Crane addresses readers’ issues and shines a light on companies doing both good and evil.

Do you want her to investigate a problem or do you want to praise a company for going the extra mile? Get in touch:

helen.crane@thisismoney.co.uk

British Airways confirmed that a scammer had used the “combine my Avios” feature to get your points, temporarily blocked it and told you it would investigate.

But you said the person on the phone couldn’t tell you. how things would be investigated, or whether your Avios had been spent and could be recovered.

He was also concerned that he had been wrongly told which email address to provide when completing the change of address form, which was later confirmed by a manager.

You said BA would contact you by email within a week about next steps, but you weren’t sure they knew how to contact you given the confusion.

A week went by and you didn’t hear anything, so you contacted me.

You have now regained access to your account and your balance of 180,799 Avios has been restored, along with your companion bonuses.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for our customer’s experience and have been in touch to resolve the issue.”

My son spent £256 calling his girlfriend in Australia

I have an 18 year old son. His girlfriend is currently on sabbatical in Australia.

In November, my son made an hour-long phone call to his Australian mobile from his EE mobile, which I paid for.

This was done without my knowledge and my son did not realize that it would not be included in his included package. When I received the bill, the call cost me £256.

I researched call charges and discovered that I could have bought a package for calls to Australia for £2.16 a month, which would have reduced the cost of the call to 21p per minute or £12.

I’m an NHS worker and I’ll struggle to pay for it. I have also been a loyal EE customer for 13 years.

I asked EE if the package could be applied retrospectively but was told no.

Instead, it offered a 25 per cent discount on the bill up to £191. NG, Leeds

Call charge: The 18-year-old only realized after an hour-long conversation with his girlfriend in Australia that it would cost his father hundreds

Call charge: The 18-year-old only realized after an hour-long conversation with his girlfriend in Australia that it would cost his father hundreds

Helen Crane responds: Ah, young love. Those who grew up with landline bills (or mobile credit that could run out) might struggle to understand how their child could make this mistake.

However, you explained that your son, no doubt like many other young people, has had an “unlimited” telephone contract with EE since he was 10 years old.

That means everything from calls to messages to data is included, with no restrictions, for one flat monthly fee.

If that’s all you’ve ever known, I can understand how you might not realize you’d have such a hard time chatting up your girlfriend in Australia.

But should EE reimburse him for his mistake?

You argue that it was an innocent mistake and that if he or you had known about the ‘add-on’ you could buy to make international calls cheaper, you would have used it.

You also told me that you will leave EE for another provider, who offers an NHS discount, if they force you to pay the charge.

I got in touch to ask if he would reconsider.

An EE spokesperson said: ‘Calling an international destination, such as Australia, from your EE mobile phone may incur higher call charges and we offer a range of add-ons that provide the best international calling rates for our customers.

“Our website has an overseas calling calculator for customers to check the cost of international calls before dialing and also recommends an international calling add-on to give them the best value for money for that destination.”

‘We have reviewed Neil’s account and the charges are correct based on his son’s call. We have decided to offer Neil a 25 per cent reduction on calls made to Australia as a gesture of goodwill, which he has accepted.

“We encourage all customers to check the cost of international calls before dialing.”

Unfortunately, it seems that you will continue to pay the price for your son’s romantic gesture.

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