Email offering refund from Trip*com following cancelled flights in 2020 - possible SCAM?

Blueshift313

Hello

So back at the end of 2019 I booked a multicity trip around southeast Asia for May 2020, which of course got completely scuppered by COVID. I received all refunds for flights and hotels which had been booked directly within a month of them being cancelled, however never received one for the return flight Hanoi - Heathrow via Bangkok and I had concluded that this was never going to happen.

Lo and behold today (4 years later??) I receive emails from en_flight_noreply@trip*com confirming that my refund had been issued but has bounced back. Everything, and I mean everything, in the details matches correctly; booking ref, flight details, personal info. The cost is roughly the value of the tickets (+1.5%), and they are requesting updated bank account details (this would be necessary if it was legit as I have switched accounts twice since 2019).

It's not an unsubstantial amount of money, so I kinda want it to be legit, but obviously I'm very cautious towards phishing scams...

Anyone any ideas? Is this likely a scam or is it possible to take this long to sort out a refund? The reviews of their customer services are unanimously negative, so thought I'd get peoples thoughts before putting in the effort.

TIA

eskbanker

To mitigate the risk, you could always open another account (e.g. with your existing bank) specifically for this refund?

la531983

What details are they actually asking for? Very little they could do with, say, a sort code and account number, and before someone mentions the Jeremy Clarkson thing there is a little thing called the Direct Debit Guarantee.

People happily handed their sort code and account number out on bits of paper for decades.

400ixl

Rather than reply to the email, why not go direct to trip.com and use one of the methods of contacting them (chat, call, email) and ask them directly?

Blueshift313

la531983 said:

What details are they actually asking for? Very little they could do with, say, a sort code and account number, and before someone mentions the Jeremy Clarkson thing there is a little thing called the Direct Debit Guarantee.

People happily handed their sort code and account number out on bits of paper for decades.

That's a very good point. They're requesting my name, name of bank, account and sort code number, no security details or passwords, etc.

Another reason for me being suspicious is I booked a long haul flight for the first time since 2020 only last week, got me thinking what are the chances I get a response about the previous one...

la531983

Blueshift313 said:

la531983 said:

What details are they actually asking for? Very little they could do with, say, a sort code and account number, and before someone mentions the Jeremy Clarkson thing there is a little thing called the Direct Debit Guarantee.

People happily handed their sort code and account number out on bits of paper for decades.

That's a very good point. They're requesting my name, name of bank, account and sort code number, no security details or passwords, etc.

Another reason for me being suspicious is I booked a long haul flight for the first time since 2020 only last week, got me thinking what are the chances I get a response about the previous one...

Well they already know your name, and they dont need to know what bank it is if they have the sort code as that would tell them.

If in doubt just set up a savings pot and give them the SC and AN of that, you cant set up a DD from those (well you cant with the ones in Chase or the Halifax anyway, assume other banks are similar)

Voyager2002

That sounds very plausible to me, so I would accept the offer of a refund.

The fact that you just booked with the agent might have prompted something, perhaps causing your name to appear on a computer screen.

If you want to check that the email is legitimate, use Google to find a tool such as Reverse DNS look-up, and get it to analyse the "headers" of the message. That should tell you a bit more about where the email originated: obviously if it comes from Nigeria that would be a red flag.

Blueshift313

It worked! Filled in the updated details form and received the money this morning into a burner bank account.

Anyone have any idea why it would take nearly 4 years for a refund/compensation to be sorted? My account on the Trip*com website says the refund was issued in April 2020, I assume the travel agency had held onto the cash until now.

Westin

Perhaps the unnamed airline had not paid the agent.

If it was Thai then they have had to restructure and refinance debts.