Is this a scam? flightassist

Scams and Ripoffs
1

I didn’t know whether to post here or under travel -so I’ll try here first to see if anyone responds.

We were unable to sign in with Latam/Delta for our flight home from Chile the day before and the day of return.

One person in the group got an 800 number by googling Delta/Latam. That number was apparently with Flightasssit.com and they said our reservation were cancelled by Exoticca tours (our tour organizer) and we could reinstate with $350/person payment. We felt we had no choice. It sounded legit as we just gave one name and they told us the remaining 5 names of our group.

We didn’t want to miss our flight and each gave credit card info with the thought of pursuing with the Delta or Exoticca when we got home.

We have since call both Delta and Exoticca and they knew nothing about the cancellation of our reservations.

We put in fraud alerts with our credit card companies. Mine was Capital One and they didn’t pay the $700 and are sending me a new card.

In a brief subsequent telecon with flightassist, they said they represent all airlines.

Anybody familiar with this. Thoughts? I did read some scam stories on line about them.

2

From what you described it sounds like a scam. I would immediately dispute the charges on your credit card and close them. It sounds like that’s what you have done…

3

thank you and yes that is what we did.

4

They are scammers, they get an F rating with the BBB and there are numerous complaints.

5

thank you for your input - I’ll look at that.

6

Update that I got the case resolved.

After CapitalOne “CO” rejected my objection to the charge, I filed with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau basically saying the CO should have recognized this as a scam and is in a position to help fight scams.

CO wrote me within a couple of weeks saying they were removing the $700 charge.

CFPB - spoke to a very helpful person and found the site to be friendly.

BTW, I read the NY AG is suing Citi Bank - my understanding is it includes not doing enough to combat scams. That may have also influenced CO to credit the $'s.