Qantas scam text every Aussie needs to know about – and how to tell you’re being conned 

Australians are being warned about a new scam text message that is pretending to come from Qantas. 

The rapidly spreading fraud tells the recipient flights have been booked in their name with the national airline. 

The text will say something like, ‘CBA: Qantas ticket bought for flight QA 2352. If this was not you please immediately call 02 8355 8255.’

The flight isn’t real and the swindle only works if a person calls the provided number. 

If someone calls the number, it’s answered by a scammer who will try to get their bank details and then rob them. 

The racket could be tried several times to the same person, with slight changes to make it appear like it came from a bank or Qantas. 

The Australian Competition Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch urged people to be aware of the con so they don’t fall for it.

‘Beware of text messages saying you have bought a ticket or made a purchase and asking you to click a link or call a number if it wasn’t you,’ Scamwatch said.

‘This is a scam. Don’t call the number.’ 

The warning added that people should contact Scamwatch if they got the message.

Qantas also has a page advising customers about scams pretending to be from the airline. 

‘From time to time we are made aware [of] scams and social media posts that claim to be authentic Qantas communications,’ it said.

‘Unfortunately scammers can change sender ID names which makes it confusing for the recipient to recognise when a legitimate message has been sent and when it is a scam.’

It said this can trick people into believing the text is genuine, but said: ‘We will never ask customers to click a link to download a file about bookings from a website, including our own. 

‘We send important documents that relate to your booking as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files that you can download directly.’

Telstra recently began allowing customers to ‘dob in’ scammers, opening a ‘SCAM’ text line to report the attempted swindles.

Its customers can forward suspicious messages to the reporting number – 7226 (which spells scam on the dial pad) – free of charge.

The text (pictured) will say something like ‘CBA: Qantas ticket bought for flight QA 2352. If this was not you please immediately call 02 8355 8255’

The company then investigates the source of the deceit and reports it to government agencies.

The airline has also warned about scam emails where the sender name is ‘QANTAS AIR’ and the sender email address is ‘support@journeyfoundation.com’. 

The email contains a number of links – including to ‘Confirm/Modify Booking’ – which link to ‘qantasair.net’. 

‘This website is not an authentic Qantas website and these emails are not from us,’ the company warned.