Malindo Air has brought to the public’s attention that a fake website has been identified selling the airline’s tickets illegally. The announcement was made via the airline’s social media channels on Twitter and Facebook.
The impostor website, bearing the URL of “flymalindoairways.com”, is found selling tickets through a suspicious payment gateway known as “OnePAY”. Malindo Air says that the payment gateway has not been registered with its system and all purchases made are not captured in the airline’s database.
PETALING JAYA, 10 October 2020 – Malindo Air wishes to bring to the public's attention that an illegal website has been identified selling Malindo Air tickets illegally via https://t.co/yQhjy1SE7Y.
— BatikAir.MY (@malindoair) October 10, 2020
The fake site itself may appear legitimate, especially to those who’ve never visited Malindo’s actual website or are unfamiliar with the airline. The scammers behind the website even took an extra mile and created various approaches to make the website appear believable; including a COVID-19 awareness prompt, providing a customer service email address, and flight schedules. The only big takeaway is the impostor’s logo, which is completely different from Malindo’s own.
Furthermore, we’ve discovered that the scammers also created a mobile app that links to the website’s ‘services.’ However, in order to download it, users will need to provide your mobile number first in order to get the download ‘link.’ As curious as one can be, we highly recommend not doing so if you wish to treasure your privacy and security.
Along with the warning, Malindo advised customers that all ticket bookings are done via the airline’s official website at www.malindoair.com and registered online travel agencies (OTA) only. In response, Malindo Air says that it has filed an official report to MyCert against the fake website and a police report is also underway.
On a related note, Malaysia Airlines also warned of a fake website back in June this year. Similarly, the airline advised customers to take caution and make sure that they make their flight bookings only via its official website and app, as well as its OTAs.
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