**Fraudulent Travel Booking Campaign Exploiting Multiple Financial Service Companies**
A sophisticated scam campaign has been identified centering around the domain cheapvuelos.com and its www subdomain, both registered through GoDaddy.com, LLC on September 13, 2022. This fraudulent travel booking operation has been reported in connection with five financial service companies across multiple industries, suggesting a coordinated effort to exploit consumers through fake flight booking services while potentially harvesting personal and financial information for additional fraudulent activities.
The campaign demonstrates a complex web of interconnected entities, with cheapvuelos.com and www.cheapvuelos.com being co-reported with United Group Inc. (75 CFPB complaints in vehicle loan/lease industry), Locate Services LLC (4 CFPB complaints in debt collection), Changed Inc. (2 CFPB complaints in banking), UPGRADE, INC. (4,132 CFPB complaints in credit reporting), and Credit Corp Solutions Inc. (2,743 CFPB complaints in debt collection). The connection between United Group Inc. and Changed Inc. shows the highest confidence level at 1.00, indicating these entities are frequently reported together in consumer complaints.
Consumer impact from this campaign is significant, as evidenced by community reports describing fraudulent flight booking experiences. Victims report finding the site while searching for cheap flights, with the scammers promising verified cheap flights through major airlines including JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, United, and Southwest. One victim reported successfully booking three round-trip flights to Medellin, Colombia, receiving immediate confirmation emails before discovering the fraud. The involvement of debt collection companies and financial service firms with thousands of consumer complaints suggests victims' personal information may be used for additional fraudulent activities beyond the initial fake booking scam.
**Consumer Protection Advice:** If contacted by any entity claiming association with cheapvuelos.com or offering unusually cheap flights, hang up immediately and do not click any links in emails or text messages. To verify the legitimacy of travel booking websites, book directly through airline websites or use established travel agencies with verified business licenses. Check domain registration dates and be suspicious of recently registered sites offering deals that seem too good to be true. If you believe you have been contacted by this scam operation, report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or file a complaint with the FCC. To check if a phone number or domain is associated with known scams, search the number or domain name along with terms like "scam" or "fraud" in search engines and check consumer protection websites.
This campaign represents a high-threat level operation given the sophisticated coordination between multiple entities and the significant consumer complaint volumes associated with connected companies totaling over 6,950 CFPB complaints. Immediate steps recommended include adding cheapvuelos.com and associated entities to fraud databases, coordinating with GoDaddy for potential domain suspension, and issuing consumer alerts about fraudulent travel booking schemes that may lead to additional financial exploitation through connected debt collection and credit reporting scams.