Student’s air ticket cancelled without his knowledge, IP address traced to Bangalore

A Mumbai student’s air ticket to Chennai was allegedly cancelled without his knowledge. Abhishek Aaron, an engineering student, said he received a message from travel portal MakeMyTrip on January 14, saying the request to cancel his ticket had been processed.

A Mumbai student’s air ticket to Chennai was allegedly cancelled without his knowledge. Abhishek Aaron, an engineering student, said he received a message from travel portal MakeMyTrip on January 14, saying the request to cancel his ticket had been processed.

HT Image

“I panicked, as I was supposed to leave the following night,” said Aaron. When he contacted the customer care service centre, he was told the ticket was cancelled from an Internet Protocol (IP) address in Bangalore.

“The ticket was cancelled while I was in college. I don’t have any relatives in Bangalore,” Aaron said. In a blog post, Aaron said he lost 45% of the ticket price (Rs4,701), deducted as cancellation charges. He had to spend more on a last-minute train ticket. However, a spokesperson for MakeMyTrip said the cancellation charges were later waived off.

According to the spokesperson, the company uses two modes of authentication — customers can either cancel tickets through their account, by providing an email ID and password, or by using their booking ID and mobile number.

“The authentication was done using the customer’s booking ID and mobile number,” the spokesperson said. “The customer claims the IP address doesn’t belong to him, but the cancellation couldn’t have been made without access to his personal data.”

Aaron is planning to file a complaint with the police and the cybercrime cell. “If the customer feels his email account has been compromised, he should reach out to the cybercrime cell. We will cooperate with the investigations,” the spokesperson said.