GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Two days after touching down for a vacation in Mexico, Ed and Gloria Szymanski received a late-night phone call, telling them the unthinkable.
Their daughter, who lived in Iowa, had suddenly passed away. They needed to fly back to the States right away, to take their daughter's body back home to Grand Rapids.
Immediately, the couple dialed Delta Airlines.
"We kept calling, kept calling, and kept calling," Gloria says.
They were told emergency rates totaled $375, but when they contacted the emergency number on Delta's website, the person on the other end informed them otherwise.
The Szymanskis said the person claimed no emergency tickets were available. They would have to purchase full-price tickets, at a much steeper rate, if they wanted to get their daughter back to Grand Rapids.
Then, they were told to pass along credit card information. When the first credit card allegedly didn't work, they submitted numbers for a second, and when they were told the second card didn't go through, they used the numbers on a third.
"At that point, it was like we just had to get home quickly. Because we were the ones that had to set up for funeral and deal with getting the body back to Michigan and everything. So there was so much to do, and so much to think about. And it was just we did what we thought was the right thing."
Little did they know, they were speaking not with a Delta representative but a scammer.
Months later, the Szymanskis checked their bills and noticed they'd been charged multiple times for supposed travel agency fees, costing the couple about $2,500 on top of funeral expenses.
When they contacted Delta Airlines, they learned the charges were the work of a scam.
Even worse, their credit card companies refused to discredit the charges, because they hadn't reported the fraudulent fees in time.
"We thought we were dealing with Delta and trying to get our new tickets to get home," said Ed. "We thought we're talking directly with Delta, because that was the number they had for their emergency flights to get out of here."
Looking back, the couple wishes they had just shown up at the airport and skipped the phone conversations altogether, though they might not have been promised a flight that way.
"At that point, it was just like, we got to do what we got to do," said Gloria.
The couple says stress made them more vulnerable to the scam. During these situations, the Better Business Bureau says it's best to breathe and pay attention to red flags.
Troy Baker, VP of Better Business Bureau, advises travelers to be especially wary of third party sites
"Whenever you're booking travel, know who you're booking it through," he says, because scammers often lure travelers trying to change flights or book hotels with links that pose as actual sites.
Research and careful reading can go a long way, Baker says, and even taking five extra minutes to analyze can save you from a scam.
As for the Szymanskis, they haven't halted their vacation plans. However, they do say they prefer to travel with insurance.
For more more advice on avoiding travel scams, the BBB website has a comprehensive list of tips here.
