About 800 Qantas customers have been caught in a cyber fraud after contractors in India allegedly attempted to steal frequent flyer details.
Guardian Australia understands two third-party airport contractors in India have been suspended by their employer for the alleged inappropriate conduct, which included accessing and making unauthorised changes to customer bookings.
The contractors were allegedly making changes to the frequent flyer details in an attempt to redirect points to a new account they controlled.
The changes were allegedly made using airline booking systems external to the Qantas system, the Guardian understands. Qantas has worked with partner airlines to secure any system vulnerabilities, it is understood.
A spokesperson for Qantas apologised to customers who had been caught in the alleged “fraudulent activity”, which they said had affected a number of airlines.
“As soon as we became aware of this, we worked closely with our airline partners to secure their systems to prevent this issue from happening again,” they said.
“Customers have received the full amount of points and status credits they were entitled to for their travel.”
The matter has been referred to local police in India.
