Air New Zealand sent an alert to some of its Airpoints customers on Friday afternoon advising them their information may have been 'impacted' after two of the airline's staff accounts were compromised.
Emails were only sent to those whose accounts may have been affected, which was limited to just 3.5 percent of Airpoints members.
In the email, the airline said Airpoints membership and credit card details were not accessed or compromised in the phishing incident.
"Our IT team immediately secured the two affected staff accounts and our investigation into the incident is continuing. We have notified the relevant regulatory bodies and we're further strengthening our security processes to prevent similar incidents. Unfortunately, malicious attacks of this nature are becoming more common around the world and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience," the airline said.
It says some information relating to members profiles "may have been visible in our internal documents".
Although the risk of any further activity linked to the scam is low, the airline has recommended its Airpoints members keep an eye out for any potential scamming attempts.
How to spot phishing emails:
Phishing scams can be very sophisticated. If your personal information was exposed in this recent incident, it could possibly be used to create authentic-looking hoax emails. They could include your name and your Airpoints number, for example.
Please be cautious of emails that:
- Appear to be from Air New Zealand, but are not from one of our mailing addresses which usually end in airnz.co.nz, airnewzealand.co.nz or grabaseat.co.nz
- Make urgent appeals for fast action
- Ask you to make an online payment
- Include attachments that may contain viruses
- Contain links to sites that are malicious or unsavoury
- If the email seems to be from someone you trust but is asking you to make an unusual financial transaction, call or text the real sender to check.
If you think you have been sent a phishing email, delete it immediately and if you have any doubts about an email's authenticity, contact the airline directly.
Newshub.
