By Carl Dombek
A legitimate concern about miscreants potentially using luggage tag information to file fraudulent "lost luggage" reports has morphed into something completely different and, as happens with social media, has taken on a life of its own.
An article in a respected travel magazine/website cited reports from airport baggage handlers that information on tags like the one below was being stolen and used to file fraudulent claims, seeking reimbursement. The majority of the article relied on posts from Reddit, and the publication said it had not been able to independently confirm those posts. As any decent journalist will tell you, that's a necessary qualifier but also a red flag because anyone can post anything on Reddit, regardless of its accuracy.
When other news and social media outlets started repeating the story, the morphing began in earnest.
Several TV stations sent reporters to their local airports, and interviewed so-called "travel experts" who supposedly would lend credibility to the story. Those "influencers" were obviously chosen for reasons other than their expertise and were apparently eager for their moment in the spotlight because many of the things they asserted were flat wrong.
The most troubling mutation happened when someone, somewhere, said the barcode on the baggage tags contained "...your personal information, including credit card information, address, and other data." Therefore, one ill-informed Instagram poster claimed, baggage tags should not be thrown away at the airport because personally identifiable information could be harvested by bad actors. Many of those "travel experts" who appeared on television repeated this utterly incorrect information.
Simply put, I didn't buy it.
A colleague of mine, who served as spokesman for a major international airport for a number of years, confirmed my suspicions. The barcodes do not contain that information and "...even if the airline connected the bar code to the ticketed passenger, the [bad actors would] have to hack the airline’s computer to get the info."
A baggage supervisor at SEA confirmed exactly that: a person would have to be fairly sophisticated to get all that information, just to use it to file fake lost-luggage claims with relatively small potential payouts.
While the current iterations of this story overstate things rather dramatically, caution is still called for when it comes to your travel documents, including the paper baggage tag the airline attaches to your checked luggage. And although many other travel documents - including confirmation emails, receipts, itineraries and boarding passes – are stored on our phones, many people still carry hard copies, either because they’re old school or they want a handy back-up.
Instead of tossing them in the trash bin near the baggage carousel, take them home or to your hotel or office, then shred them or put them in a confidential destruct bin. The reason (and this may surprise you as it did me) is that a traveler’s last name and booking/confirmation code can provide access to much more information about the traveler than you might have suspected.
With their permission, I used the last name and confirmation codes of a relative who had just completed a trip on a U.S.-based airline, and another whose flights were on a different airline, and still several weeks away. I was able to get the flight information for both the outbound and return flights – dates, times and flight numbers – the full name of the passenger (though the last name is also on the bag tag), and other bits of information.
However, I was NOT able to get their address or method of payment. That is important, as that information is key for those intent on a larger swindle.
With their permission, I used the last name and confirmation codes of a relative who had just completed a trip on a U.S.-based airline, and another whose flights were on a different airline, and still several weeks away. I was able to get the flight information for both the outbound and return flights – dates, times and flight numbers – the full name of the passenger (though the last name is also on the bag tag), and other bits of information.
However, I was NOT able to get their address or method of payment. That is important, as that information is key for those intent on a larger swindle.
I have made multiple requests of all the major U.S. carriers to ask for their take on this and not a single one has responded, perhaps because they don't want to acknowledge the possibility of others accessing the personal information of their passengers, though not -- and this is important -- "personally identifiable information (PII)." Airlines encrypt things like passport, social security, and credit card numbers. Imagine the potential liability they could face if they did not.
THE EXCEPTION
There is one exception to the "delay destroying those documents" advice, and that applies to premium-class customers.
There is one exception to the "delay destroying those documents" advice, and that applies to premium-class customers.
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| Courtesy British Airways |
If you fly First Class, Business Class, or if your bag has a sticker that says, “Priority,” take those off, make sure they don’t have your personal info on them, and throw them away ASAP. That way, you’re not identifying yourself as wealthy and/or important and drawing unwanted attention from bad guys the moment you're out of the airport terminal.
BOTTOM LINE
Remember, any travel document that contains your last name and confirmation number can be used to gain access to some of your personal information. Although the risk is small, keep your information secure. Keep any such documents in your possession until they can be shredded or disposed of securely rather than throwing them away at the airport where they could be retrieved by someone up to no good.
BOTTOM LINE
Remember, any travel document that contains your last name and confirmation number can be used to gain access to some of your personal information. Although the risk is small, keep your information secure. Keep any such documents in your possession until they can be shredded or disposed of securely rather than throwing them away at the airport where they could be retrieved by someone up to no good.
Visit my main page at TheTravelPro.us for more news, reviews, and personal observations on the world of upmarket travel.
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