Farebarber Reports & Reviews

Farebarber Reports & Reviews (2)

Type of a scam Other

HELPING

I’ve been a loyal for years, and I continue to be impressed. And it shows in every interaction. I highly recommend them to anyone in need of their services.

Useful

Victim Location 07407
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations

Upon visiting the website known as "https://www.cheapflights.com/" I decided to book a flight to the Caribbean for vacation. As I was browsing their list of websites, I stumbled upon one of their listed websites -- this time known as "https://www.farebarber.com/" After viewing my options, I decided to book a flight from them. Later on, I decided to contact them through phone about my purchase. Where upon, I was told by a travel agent named "Jenny Smith" (Jenny Smith appeared to be a fake name as this individual had a noticeable sub-continental/Indian accent) to visit the official airline company's website. Afterwards, I was then told that flight was no longer available at that price and offered me another flight at a slightly-higher amount, with the same destination and hours but at a different airport. Eventually, I agreed and was requested to reply to their email with "I, [my name and last name] authorise all four tickets to FareBarber" and to take a picture of the last four digits of my credit card and the name that it was on. I complied and was told to wait until Monday for my confirmation number.

After waiting, I decided to make another call to FareBarber about the status for my flight confirmation number (my credit card was 'pending'). In which, I was then told that there was a "delay" and I had to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday for my flight confirmation number. Tuesday passed, and I tried calling yet again about the status of my flight; no response. Wednesday came and I decided to call again, they emailed me the confirmation number. Later on, I went to the airline's official website to verify whether or not this eTicket was legitimate. Lo and behold, it was. However, after I went to view the receipt for that flight, the last four digits of the card that it was purchased with wasn't my card. After that day, I went to the airline's website again to check to see if the eTicket numbers were working. And, unfortunately, they weren't. This was even after I tried numerous times to resolve this with the same number and names/last names.

At this point, I was convinced that this had to have been a scam as the receipt for the flight from the airline company listed "Paid with Visa ending 4100" for the total price of "$1,748.68 USD" for four passengers. This wasn't my card, nor my purchase. So, I've then decided to call my credit card to see if any purchases have been made. (The "pending" status had disappeared and there was supposedly a purchase made for an airlines company at $2498.99.) In doing so, I've also decided to contact the airline company's support team about the status for my flight, they told me; "Upon checking, I'm showing that your reservation is already cancelled and your ticket was already converted as your eCredit." I have not made this decision as I did not have the ability to cancel/refund the flight because it was not on my credit card.

Lastly, I finally decided to contact FareBarber again to address this issue. In which, they told me "I've cancelled my flight." This was clearly not true so I then decided to contact my credit card again to dispute this charge of $2498.99 and get a new credit card. Clearly then, this website seems to be an obvious example of a bait and switch/travel scam. Even reading the Google/Trustpilot/Bark reviews for "FareBarber," there's a noticeable bot/fake account and or profile created to artificially boost the website's ratings and credibility. Much of the negative reviews also seem to address a similar concern/anxiety.

Case in point: this website is an obvious scam and it appears that some of the other websites that appear on cheapflights.com also seem to be a scam (not 100% guaranteed, but it appears so given the general layout of their websites). Some websites such as Expedia that appear on cheapflights seem to be legitimate however. Moreover, the address they list is also most probably fake/and or a call center (https://www.google.com/maps/place/87-04+58th+Ave,+Queens,+NY+11373/@40.7326868,...⇄ />
Hoping to get this website terminated/punished as this has had a tremendous emotional toll on me and my family at the expense of our time and money.

Thank you in advance.

Useful