There are so many scams involving travelers that it makes my head spin. Everywhere you go and everything you do these days, it seems like you have to be on high alert not to get taken advantage of. The latest scam, which I never really thought about but have fortunately avoided, is something all travelers should be aware of.
One thing I always do when I get home is tear off the baggage tags on my checked luggage. Not only do I take the tag off, but I also take the two little stickers on each side of the bag so that when I travel again, the airport readers don’t mistake it for a different destination. That’s smart, but apparently many travelers do it at the airport baggage claim, which is a big no-no.
The barcodes not only have the airline, flight number, and destination on them, but the tags also contain valuable personal information.
Scammers are now taking the tags off your luggage or pulling old ones out of airport garbage cans because they have your name on them, and that’s all they need to make a false claim.
According to a recent post on Reddit, a Delta baggage claims manager warned travelers to start shredding their baggage tags at home. They wrote:
“Good evening everyone. I am a Delta baggage claims manager and I just wanted to let everyone know to please start discarding your bag tags at home. We are getting an influx of fraudulent claims being submitted for ‘missing items’ as these people are observing who is removing their luggage tags in the claim areas and using your information to submit claims for reimbursement. From my own personal experience in currently dealing with this, it is causing issues with reimbursing the real people if they submit a legitimate claim. So please be careful and don’t take your tags off at the airport. They can steal enough information from that to use your travel itinerary to get paid.”
So, make sure you don’t take your bag tags off at the airport. Instead, take them home and dispose of them there or, better yet, shred them. As Henderson says, “Treat these documents as if they’re money.”
