Qantas text message you never want to open

An Australian passenger has opened up about the seemingly innocent text from Qantas that cost him $600.

A Qantas passenger claims he was scammed out of $600 after believing he was phoning the airline’s US customer service number.

Experienced traveller Paul Stewart has warned all Australians to “be careful” after he was swindled out of hundreds while travelling in the USA.

Yahoo reports he received a text on his US SIM card from Qantas notifying him that his flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was cancelled last week.

Panicked, he called the US phone number provided in the text for those who needed “immediate assistance”.

What he did not realise was that he had actually called scammers who had been targeting Aussies using US SIM cards.

Calling the number, the scammer told him that he could either pay $600 or wait a few more days in Los Angeles.

Preying on his desperation to get home quickly, he forked out the cash before realising his mistake.

Paul is urging other Australians to remain vigilant. Picture: Supplied

“They were saying the right things. They seemed to know details about my booking,” Mr Stewart told Yahoo Australia.

“It was all looking legitimate.”

It was not until later, upon reflection that he realised it all seemed "a bit weird” and decided to phone Qantas through a different number.

The customer service representative informed him that there should not have been any fee for the flight change and said there had been no history of the phone call he had.

It was then he came to the sickening realisation that he had fallen victim to a scam.

“I’m the technology literate person [in my family] and I get scammed,” he said.

“So it was quite humbling.”

Mr Stewart explained that the text message was from a Qantas phone number, where there were previous text messages from the airlines, meaning the scammers ‘spoofed’ the number – a sneaky tactic commonly used by scammers to appear more legitimate to potential victims.

The number provided in the scammer’s text message was registered to the United States, meaning US SIM card holders will get through to the airline.

Have you fallen victim to a scam? Get in touch: [e-mail]

The text appeared to come from Qantas. Picture: Supplied

However, Australians using their own SIMS will instead be connected to an Australian 1800 number if they do not add an area code, with scammers hijacking that number.

“I don’t think I was especially reckless,” he said.

“I think it’s kind of an easy thing to do. Qantas needs to change the text, even if they just add the area code in front of the number.”

Unbelievably, Ms Stewart decided to call the scammers and politely ask for his money back, to which they obliged.

“Maybe they’re thinking that they know they’re onto a good thing, so they don’t want me to complain, so maybe they just think I’ll go away quietly,” he said.

News.com.au understands that a number of passengers have fallen victim to the scam and Qantas is providing support to those impacted.

The airline has reported the scam to the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

It has also updated its communications to customers in order to warn of the danger.

Qantas has advised that the scammer’s fraudulent phone number has now been deactivated.