Exposed: Lost & Found Scam Websites and how they Work
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Online scams have seen an upward trend in recent years. Scammers have now realized that they can profit from people’s concern about their lost belongings.
Airports and airlines are particularly vulnerable to scammers. We have a bonus for you at the end of this article!
One growing trend in recent years is scams related to Lost and Found companies. On one hand, there are Lost and Found providers, such as www.lostandfoundsoftware.com, that collaborate directly with airports, public transportation, hotels, etc.. On the other hand, there are providers with no contractual agreements in place. This has led to an increase in scam attempts, as recently reported by our partners. They have all raised a common issue: Websites presenting themselves as official Lost and Found offices or at least implying direct affiliations. Some of these websites carefully word their content to minimize legal repercussions.
What’s the scam?
Customers typically expect these services to be free, but these websites charge customers for assistance. In the hopes of filing an official Lost and Found report, passengers often pay, for example, $49.99 to initiate the return process. The money is transferred, the passenger waits, and unfortunately, nothing happens.
As seen in the reviews of several scammer websites, there’s a significant likelihood that customers won’t receive responses, lose their money, and may believe their lost item was never found, even though the scammers may not have even made an effort to search for it.
Let’s take a step back and understand how these websites gain your trust in the first place:
These deceptive websites exploit a basic understanding of how search Ads function. They employ Search Engine Advertisement (SEA) strategies. For instance, sophisticated scammers create Ads indexed with the names of every airport, airline, and conceivable service, positioning themselves among the top results on search engines.
Trustworthy appearance: These websites have a highly professional appearance, which makes them seem trustworthy. Nowadays, it is much easier and more cost-effective than in the past to create professional-looking websites.
For example, if you examine a site like lostfoundcenter .com, it becomes clear. The site features professionally designed pages, images of employees (only first names, without LinkedIn profiles), a company history, press coverage that never happened and an impressive number of positive reviews and mentions across major channels — though, notably, these are not linked directly to the articles. However, upon closer inspection, one can identify details that someone not vigilant about potential scams might easily overlook:
Some tips to recognize Scam a Website:
2. None of the three founders and employees can be found by name on LinkedIn or any other search engine like Google.
4. None of the CEO or employees can be found using Google’s reverse image search.
In addition to this, there are many more indicators that could serve as evidence of a scam website, such as missing contact and company information, unsecure payment methods, spelling errors, pressure to act quickly, lack of privacy policies, missing SSL encryption, and inaccurate or missing return and refund policies.
What customers can do:
One important point that needs to be reiterated and prominently displayed on every FAQ and landing page related to Lost and Found is: SERVICE ORIENTED COMPANIES WILL NEVER CHARGE FOR THE LOST AND FOUND SEARCH ITSELF. Once the knowledge that reputable Lost and Found services do not charge for merely filing a report or submitting inquiries becomes widespread, a significant portion of most scammers’ business models will collapse. Educated passengers are the best defense against Lost and Found fraud.
In addition to education provided by airports and airlines, passengers also have tools at their disposal to verify the legitimacy of Lost and Found services. One powerful tool available to everyone for all online transactions and purchases is scam detector portals. There are websites where individuals can obtain assessments of how trustworthy a site is. Some examples are:
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These platforms offer valuable insights, but even here, one must exercise caution.
For example, if you look at the Trustpilot page for airportlostandfound.com, one thing becomes evident:
1. The 5-star reviews are exclusively from 2016 and 2017. The 1 and 2-star reviews are spread over the years. Additionally, there are some from 2023.
2. Most comments simply express the hope of retrieving their lost item or provide very general information. There is no comment confirming that the item was found, yet they all award a 5-star rating.
3. Reviews on Trustpilot are generally positive, but the overall summary is negative, as Trustpilot acknowledges that the comments are not very reliable.
Once you, as the inquirer, have determined that a Lost and Found Service may be trustworthy, there are additional steps to take. First and foremost, scrutinize the fine print! Does the service claim to have an official, direct partnership with the airline, airport, TSA, etc.? Or is the wording intentionally vague, such as “we will file a report on your behalf”?
Be sure to visit the website of the entity where you believe you lost your item directly to verify any of these claims. Navigating directly to the airport’s Lost and Found section via their official website is, of course, the safest route to avoid falling into virtual traps.
Another common tactic employed by many of these scam sites is the use of an age-old psychological sales trick — they withhold price information until the very end. Why do they do this? Because if you’ve already invested time in filling out multiple forms, you’re more likely to agree to a higher cost in the end.
Can we take direct action against scammers?
Many of our partners have faced customer complaints due to fraudulent Lost and Found websites. Some have attempted to send warning letters, cease and desist notices, and have reached out to Google. Unfortunately, the results have often fallen short of expectations.
Currently, the most effective approach is to hit scammers where it hurts the most: their finances.
· It is crucial that the airport and the Lost and Found office proactively provide information on how passengers can reclaim lost items for free. This information should be readily available on the airport’s website, in brochures, and within the terminals.
Bonus Material
Add this to your website to warn customers about the scam website:
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Scam alert!
We’re aware of a scam where passengers are being asked to pay a $50 non-refundable fee for filing a Lost and Found item report at [ENTER YOUR AIRPORT]. As a reminder, there is no cost to submit a Lost and Found item report at [ENTER YOUR AIRPORT]. However, there may be a cost associated with shipping a lost item back to its owner.
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We aim to assist you in distinguishing between legitimate lost and found services and potential fraudsters. Our goal is to prevent any damage to the reputation of airports and airlines due to untrustworthy third parties misusing their names. www.lostandfoundsoftware.com
Co-founder at Mama and ex-GM at Lyft, Airbnb, Doordash - Launching and growing 3P and 1P consumer marketplaces towards profitability and 9-digit GMV - Across US & Hispanic cultures.
2 个月Real scam! They portray themselves as airport branches