A South Florida Sheriff's Office is issuing an eye-opening warning after the department has received multiple reports of criminals illegally redeeming airline frequent flyer miles or credits.
"In at least one case, it appeared the victim’s personal information was hacked or available online," the Monroe County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post this week. "In each instance, the miles were worth thousands of dollars."
It's not clear yet what airlines the victims' miles were from.
It's not a new crime. A Miami college student was arrested in 2015 after being accused of stealing more than $200,000 worth of American Airlines frequent flyer miles from at least six different people.
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According to his arrest report, police believe he was changing people's account emails and passwords in order to take control and redeem the miles.
"The most important thing when you are thinking about your airline frequent flyer miles is to recognize they are a valuable currency,” said Zach Griff, Senior Aviation writer for The Points Guy.
Griff says flyers should protect loyalty account information the same way they would protect a bank account, like using strong passwords and two-factor authentication if it's offered.
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The other big tip, is to monitor accounts regularly.
"Thieves they may not be able to get into your wallet or you credit card information, but if they can hack into your frequent flyer account, they can then go and make reservations for flights and you may not even know," said Griff. "If there are fraudulent charges, odds are you’ll have more success at getting them reversed the faster and sooner you notice them."
NBC6 reached out to several airlines to see if they've seen an uptick in this type of crime and how they suggest customers protect their accounts. We are still waiting to hear back from most.
A spokesperson for Delta said they haven't received reports about an increase of fraudulent activity related to SkyMiles redemption travel, and added that they provide several pieces of guidance for customers on delta.com on how to keep an eye out and what to do, including changing their account password and reporting the incident to the airline.
NBC6 has also requested the incident reports from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
