Nowadays people depend on Google for every small and big work. Any address, its map and even the phone number are found quickly on this search engine. A person rescheduling his flight ticket through one such number narrowly escaped being hit. A user named Shmuli Evers has narrated the incident that happened to him in several Twitter posts. This shows that fraudsters are now using contact listings on Google Maps to cheat.

Shamuli Evers has reported that her Delta Airlines flight was cancelled. He tried calling the customer care number but could not connect. He contacted the hotline number of the airline company, which was listed on Google Maps. Evers claims she was fraud number one.

Evers claims that when he called the number found on Google Maps, the caller claimed to be a representative of the airline. Evers asked for his name and flight confirmation number. Evers was then asked to SMS a confirmation number to another phone number. He was also asked to pay for the new flight reservation.

my @delta flight got canceled from JFK. The customer service line was huge, so I googled a Delta JFK phone number. The number was 1888-571-4869 Thinking I reached Delta, I started telling them about getting me on a new flight.

— Shmuli Evers (@Shmuli) July 16, 2023

After a minute the line broke up, but they called me back… from the number +33-4-56-38-67-82 (French number that came up as DTI Publishing in Caller ID). First red flag. He had a very strong Indian Accent (Red Flag), and was overly eager to help me.

— Shmuli Evers (@Shmuli) July 16, 2023

Evers claims that’s when he realized something was amiss. He disconnected the call. Evers says the fraudster then sent multiple text messages and asked to pay five times the cost of the ticket to rebook the ticket. Evers claims to have discovered that the fraudsters replaced the valid Delta Airlines number with their own.

Not only was the hotline number changed, but the second number on Google Maps was also wrong. Both numbers have now been fixed. The good thing about the whole affair was that Evers narrowly escaped being cheated.

If you also take a mobile number from Google Maps, then first check its authenticity. Never share your banking details while talking to the other person. Do not tell OTP and do not give necessary documents.