A young man keen to cast his vote in the ongoing Indian general elections was in for a rude shock when he discovered that his ticket had been cancelled by an unknown spammer, while he was preparing to fly back to India.
Joystan Lobo, who works as a junior accountant in the capital city of Muscat in Oman, made the discovery just four days before he was meant to fly to his homeland, Mangaluru in the southern state of Karnataka.
Sequence of events:
On March 30, the eager voter posted an “inspirational video” for his friends on social media to raise awareness about the importance of casting a ballot.
In the short clip, Mr Lobo reportedly spoke about the significance of voting and also disclosing the name and party of the candidate he would vote for, all the while flashing his booking confirmation.
He then shared the clip with his friends on social media, oblivious to the fact that the act was about to cost him dearly.
Within two hours of sharing the video online, someone cancelled his ticket.
It appears that a spammer noted the PNR details and his last name, went to the airlines’ website and cancelled his booking.
Speaking to DaijiWorld, Mr Lobo said that he did not know about the cancellation until April 1.
“I was unaware about the cancellation of ticket. The ticket was cancelled on March 30 at around 11:15 am (Oman time). I came to know about the cancellation of the ticket on April 1,” said Mr Lobo.
But the episode didn’t deter Mr Lobo from travelling home to exercise his franchise. He immediately re-booked his ticket and reached India as scheduled, on April 4.
However, it did burn a hole in his pocket.
Not only did he have buy another ticket, but he also ended up shelling out a lot more for the last minute purchase.
Warning:
Airlines often warn people against displaying their ticketing information online, whether it is their boarding pass, screenshots of a ticket, or as in Mr Lobo’s case, a booking confirmation obtained via a mobile app, email or travel agent.
Rajinder Singh, a travel agent based in India told SBS Punjabi that information displayed on a ticket or a booking confirmation is “sensitive” and can allow an outsider to “misuse” it.
“This is highly sensitive information that must not be displayed on public platforms. For starters, it has your PNR data, last name, sometimes even your frequent flyer card details-enough for a spammer to get access to your personal profile on the airline’s website and mess with it,” said Mr Singh.
