Budget carrier IndiGo on Wednesday cautioned flyers against sharing their PNR number on social media or to unauthorised people in light of an incident in which flight tickets of eight passengers were cancelled without consent.
The Noida-based software engineer had reportedly shared ticket details, including the PNR, on social media platform X and the airline believes that is when cyber thugs took him for a ride.
The techie was travelling from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi on January 7 and had booked eight tickets at around Rs 72,000.
He reportedly shared on X a purported screenshot of the web check-in process, and tagged IndiGo to ask "Why forced to web check in? If it is mandatory, why should I pay additional charges?"
"If auto-assignment stopped and I have 8 passengers on my PNR, why is the portal forcing me to pay an additional amount for all eight seats?" he added.
Later, a conversation took place between the techie and an IndiGo representative over direct messages (DM), whose screenshots were also shared by him.
He claimed that he was asked for the PNR by an IndiGo official which he shared it at 1.27 am and at 1.38 am he was informed by the customer care that his tickets had been cancelled.
"Without my confirmation or consent you can't cancel my ticket. Reinstate my ticket as my money is not for charity for your staff's mistake. @DGCAIndia @JM_Scindia my flight is in 6 hours and I am being harassed," the techie said in another post.
Responding to his post, IndiGo said: "We have put forth our utmost effort to assist you, sir. We would recommend refraining from sharing personal details on social media. We look forward to the opportunity to welcome you on board for your future travel with us."
After looking into the details of the episode, IndiGo on Wednesday said the passenger was duped by cybercriminals. The airline added that as a gesture of goodwill, it has offered the passenger a waiver of the cancellation fee on the original tickets.
"We are aware of an incident involving an IndiGo customer who was defrauded by cybercriminals. The passenger had reached out to the IndiGo team on X (formerly Twitter) with their PNR details visible in the public domain.
IndiGo's social media team assisted the passenger and advised not to share PNR details in public. However, it seems that a fraudster obtained the passenger's PNR to change the personal details and subsequently cancelled the bookings," IndiGo told PTI in a statement.
IndiGo further said it maintains industry-standard cybersecurity protocols and works constantly to strengthen them. It urged customers not to share their PNR or contact details with any unauthorised person or website or publish it on any public platforms like X.