20th December
[email protected]
To whom it may concern
After careful consideration I am writing to you to bring to your attention what I consider to be a serious breach in Jetstars obligation to protect the security of their passengers personal details, and more importantly your procedures allowing a blatant case in identity fraud to be committed. This has occurred to both me and to my niece Savannah Smith, on the same booking as outlined below.
Our previous employer, Amanda Yow, booked and paid by her credit card, a group booking from Darwin to Bali on the 12/11 returning on the 15/11 for 4 people. We have individually paid Amanda cash for the tickets. The names which she booked were, Amanda Yow, Linda Bentley, myself - Helen Allfree and Savannah Smith. This was booked back in August.
Savannah and I have since resigned from the business and decided to change our flights to suit a time that was more convenient for us. Savannah telephoned Jetstar on October 26th approximately 3pm and spoke to a gentleman explaining the situation being that we were no longer employed there, and did not wish to travel as a group. He removed us from that original group booking and created a new booking in our names. He spoke to both of us for security reasons and we had to give him relevant personal details so he could verify our identity to complete this change to a new booking. We also gave him my email address and he informed us we would receive an email confirming our new booking number and that there would be a fee for the change. At the time of changing our booking, we hadn't decided when we would like to go so we left it as the same date; however he informed us that we had up until the day before to give a new date and pay the difference.
On the 10th of November, Savannah telephoned Jetstar approximately 8.30pm to give a new date for our travel and arrange to pay the difference as instructed to do on our previous contact with Jetstar. At this time however, she was informed that we had no booking at all and that someone had impersonated Savannah and had changed the booking for both of us. This person was Amanda Yow as your employee informed us that Savannah's ticket had been changed to one of Amanda Yow's son's, Braydon Yow, but the employee would not give out the name of who my ticket had been changed to as they said it was confidential information and we were not listed on the booking. The person Savannah spoke to was Serena with reference number XGGUO and then Savannah asked to speak to a supervisor who was Mark reference number XMGUO2. They were not very helpful and offered no direction at all as to what could /should be done.
We realise that the person who makes the booking and pays, can change a name and pay a fee. We are at a loss, as we explained in detail why we wanted to change our booking and a new booking number was created.By doing this, we were advised that we were removed from the group booking and now have our own individual booking. If a new booking number is created then how can a person from another booking reference number change the booking as they should no longer be associated with the ticket? The only way that we believe that this could happen is if they gave false information by impersonating us. Not only did this person change Savannah's booking to another name, this person then changed mine as well in the same phone call. We are now out of pocket with no booking at all, however the big issue here is someone has impersonated us and your company has changed bookings with our personal flight information being openly available over the phone to someone that was not us.
We wanted to draw this to your attention as this is a blatant case of identity fraud and destroys any trust we may have with your security measures as a company. We express are concern how our amended booking could have been changed by someone else impersonating us, and are very keen to find out what you intend to do to rectify this situation. Your company would have record of the audit trail of our booking, evidence enough I am sure that this matter should be brought to the attention of the relevant authorities. This appears to have been done with the blessing of your company.
As you are now aware that a breach has occurred, I believe that you are obligated to act.
We would appreciate a reply within 7 days as to the action you intend to take in regards to this matter. I personally believe that this is a big enough issue to take to the Ombudsman, relevant authorities or even the press as someone’s identity is a precious thing that should not be allowed to be exploited under any circumstances, especially by a company such as yours that relies so heavily on internet bookings.
I anxiously await your response
Helen Allfree
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