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Norse Atlantic Airways customer Joanne Reston joined the airline’s official Facebook group to complain about a missing refund. At least that’s what she thought she was doing. As it turns out, that Facebook group had no affiliation with the airline. In fact, it was just a trap set by scammers pretending to be helpful Norse agents.
What happened to Reston after joining that Facebook group can only be described as a whirlwind of scams upon scams.
After posting her flight details, she was pleased at the swift response from the helpful Norse agents monitoring the Facebook page. Those individuals assured Reston that she would receive her $690 refund, but first, she needed to complete some security steps.
The convoluted instructions included moving the conversation to WhatsApp, a favorite communication platform of scammers. The next part of the scheme involved setting up accounts on Zelle, Wise and other obscure money transfer apps.
By the time the dust settled, the fake Norse agents had stolen $5,100 from her bank account.
That’s when she reached out to Consumer Rescue. She hoped that we could unravel this mess, track down her refund and maybe get her stolen money back.
Here’s Reston’s terrible story and what you need to know before making public refund requests in “official” airline Facebook groups.
Note: Joanne asked that I not use her real last name in the article. She is embarrassed that she fell for this scam, and multiple bad actors continue to reach out to her every day. She wants to keep a low online profile for now, but she does want others to learn from her mistakes.
Booking a flight with Norse Atlantic Airways
This saga began back in September, when Reston began planning a spring trip to Greece. After doing some online comparison shopping, she settled on a Norse Atlantic flight from JFK to Athens for just $690. That rate included insurance and seat assignments.
However, several months later, Reston received a message from Norse Atlantic about a schedule change. She accepted the initial adjustment. But a few weeks later when the airline sent her an alert about another, more significant alteration, she declined.
“I decided to cancel and book my flight with a more reliable airline,” Reston explained. “So I asked Norse for a refund.”
When several weeks went by and she hadn’t received that refund, and no follow up from Norse, Reston began to worry. That’s when she learned some surprising things about the airline — things she wished she had known before booking that ticket.
What is the problem with Norse Atlantic Airways?
Norse Atlantic Airways is a low-budget Norwegian carrier. It first appeared on the scene in 2021, but by 2025, it was already undergoing restructuring. That’s never a good sign. I began receiving frequent complaints about canceled flights and missing refunds around the same time.
It is fair to say that the airline has amassed a significant number of disgruntled former customers. To make matters worse, Norse doesn’t have traditional customer service. Frustrated travelers have no way to reach a real human agent.
As a result, scammers have taken advantage of the situation. Facebook groups claiming to be Norse Atlantic customer service have sprung up all over the platform. Nearly all of them are run by bad actors hoping to capitalize on this problem.
Note: Norse Atlantic does maintain an official Facebook page, but it doesn’t appear to be a channel for addressing customer complaints. You can verify official Facebook pages by the blue checkmark that appears next to the page or group title.
I recently counted nearly 30 Norse Atlantic Facebook groups, most using the official logo of the airline as their thumbnail. With names such as “Norse Atlantic Claim Center,” “Norse Atlantic Refund Department,” and various scam call center numbers on display, the purpose of these communities is clear.
Related: Scam call centers are rising on the Internet. Here’s how to avoid them
Unfortunately, Reston was unaware of the dangers lurking in Facebook groups. So when she searched for Norse Atlantic Airways on the social media giant, she joined the first community suggested to her. Quickly, she received approval to post to the group called “Norse Atlantic Airways Refund.”
This message is fabricated by scammers to make the group appear legitimate.
Finally, Reston thought she would reach someone who could find out what happened to her refund.
In reality, she was about to meet a gang of scammers whose only intention was to help themselves — to her money.
Fake Norse agents use Wise, LemFi and Skrill for this scam
As soon as Reston posted her missing refund complaint to the group, she received a private Direct Message. The fake Norse customer service message directed her to click the link in the DM and she would be transferred to a live agent.
As soon as Reston clicked on that link, the scam was on in full force.
Reston was first advised to put WhatsApp on her phone. Then a man claiming to be from Norse customer service called her. During their lengthy conversation, he instructed her to make accounts on Wise, LemFi, and Skrill — money transfer apps she had never heard of before.
He gave me passwords to use, and after trying each app, he told me the payments didn’t go through. Then we downloaded another app, etc. He had me on the phone for hours. These transactions were all conducted on the same day.
When the man finally gave up and told Reston he would need to escalate the problem, she hung up in frustration. But that frustration would soon turn to abject anger when she signed into her bank account. To her horror, she saw over $4,000 had been removed during the time the con artist had her on the phone.
“I called the bank and reported the scam,” Reston told me. “They told me the charges would be investigated.”
Still not recognizing that the source of the scam was the Facebook group, Reston went back and posted another complaint. This time she was reporting that someone pretending to be Norse Atlantic had stolen $4,000 from her.
Not surprisingly, a concerned agent nearly immediately reached out to correct the problem.
This person emailed her from: “norseatlaticclienthelp (at) gmail(dot) com.”
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Had she looked carefully at that address Reston would have noticed that Atlantic was misspelled. A giant red flag. Not only that, but since airlines have their own sending domains, the gmail address was a clear sign that the people contacting her were fraudsters.
This scam wasn’t over yet.
Additional scammers put Zelle into the mix
Later that day, Reston received another phone call from someone claiming to be from Norse Atlantic.
“This guy, named Larry, called me on WhatsApp and told me he had found a way to get my refund,” Reston remembered. “He said the easiest and quickest way would be with Zelle.”
Uh-oh.
If you’re a regular reader of my column then you know that Zelle is a favorite payment method of scammers. Legitimate travel providers do not ask their customers to use Zelle for anything.
Related: This Carnival Cruise line passenger lost $3,556 to a Zelle scam
But, Reston didn’t know much at all about Zelle so she didn’t recognize the danger she was in.
Hoping that this would finally put an end to her refund search, Reston added Larry’s number to her Zelle account. Then he managed to convince her to approve a transaction that he said would result in a $1,000 refund being sent from the Norse Atlantic Airways refund department.
He actually wanted her to approve a much larger “refund” which would cover the original scam, but her bank has a $1,000 daily Zelle limit. That limit protected Reston in a big way.
After approving the transaction, the only thing Reston received was a confirmation from her bank. It said she’d just sent $1000 to “Burger Craze.” Instantly, she knew she had been scammed again.
“It was awful, and I couldn’t believe it,” Reston says. “I really thought Larry was calling to make things right. I called the bank and told them I had been scammed again.”
Now not only did Reston not have her original missing refund, but her bank account had been drained of $5,100.
And the scammers still weren’t done with her.
Consumer Rescue investigates: What’s going on in this Facebook group?
When I received Reston’s plea for help, she had received a little good news from her bank. Because she had reported the first fraudulent transactions just minutes after they were made, those were stopped.
The Zelle payment however, could not be reversed.
Related: A Zelle pet scam cost this victim $4,000. Could it happen to you?
As Reston told me her disturbing tale, she was still unsure how the scammers were receiving her information. But when she shared her paper trail, which included her Facebook information and her conversations with “Norse Atlantic Airways,” I had no doubt about how it was happening.
I pointed out to Reston that Norse Atlantic has no affiliation with the email address in those messages. She was feeding her information directly into a scam operation. The Facebook group she believed was an official customer service channel for the airline was nothing more than a criminal’s lair.
The irony: Norse Atlantic refunded the ticket weeks earlier
Then, after digging through this mess, I discovered something that made things even worse.
Norse Atlantic Airways had already refunded Reston’s ticket before she even joined the Facebook group.
The problem was that Reston had been under the impression that she had purchased her ticket directly from Norse. But she had actually bought the ticket through a third-party site called Flight Network. Because of that, the refund went back to Flight Network, which, for some reason, had not informed its customer of its existence. That caused her to go on a futile search for her money, which put her right into the hands of bad actors.
I knew that there was no chance of clawing back the Zelle payment she made to Burger Craze. The scammer had already deactivated his account and moved on — with Reston’s $1,000.
However, I believed we could track down that missing refund.
Related: Help! Fake United Airlines customer service charged me a $1,750 service fee
Asking Flight Network about its customer’s refund
Etraveli is the parent company of Flight Network, so I reached out to our executive contact. I explained what had happened to Reston and I hoped their team could figure out where her refund had gone. I suspected that the scammers might have been able to divert the $690 to themselves as well.
But soon I had a little more good news for Reston. Etraveli had a look at her account and determined that she had a credit with Flight Network. As a third-party agent, the company typically converts refunds into credits unless a customer specifically asks for it to be handled differently.
This is an excerpt of the company’s response:
Hi Michelle,
Following [two significant schedule] changes, a refund request was submitted directly [by Reston] to Norse Atlantic. The refunded amount has been returned to us by the carrier. At this stage, the booking still appears as “active” in our internal system, as the passenger has not contacted us to finalise the process. However, we are ready to process and return the refunded amount to the passenger immediately.
Best regards,
Etraveli Group
A few days later, Reston finally received that long-sought refund.
At the same time, the scam operation continued to try new ways to steal from her. This isn’t unusual. Bad actors often revisit their victims with additional schemes.
But Reston has learned a hard lesson and she wants you to learn from her mistakes.
Thank you for your assistance, Michelle!! I appreciate it. If you share my terrible story, please don’t use my real name. I am embarrassed, and the scammers are still pursuing me. I have closed my Facebook account — someone tried to break into it yesterday. And they’re still sending me messages and emails. Once the bank’s full investigation is complete, I’m closing my account there (reopening a new one) and will purchase a new phone. Guess I’m off Facebook for good. Thanks again.
You’re very welcome, Joanne. I certainly hope your story will help prevent others from falling prey to this type of scam.
What to know about those airline-branded Facebook groups
Unfortunately, the lack of customer service at Norse Atlantic Airways is creating a perfect opportunity for scammers.The Facebook group that Reston joined is gone. However, there are many more just like it. They are all filled with fake customer service agents just waiting for victims to arrive. Members post hoping to find real support but instead soon find themselves with far more serious problems than they started with.
Related: How a $425 Southwest Airlines ticket cost this scam victim $4,500
Here’s what you need to know about those Facebook groups so what happened to Reston won’t happen to you.
1. Facebook does not vet the groups on its platform
Something that many of the victims of Facebook group schemes repeatedly tell me is that they assumed Meta vets and approves these sub-communities. Let me clear up that misconception here: Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone can start a Facebook group and call it nearly anything they want. Many groups use the names and logos of major airlines, and there is no vetting process by Facebook.
Pro-tip: Always look for the blue “verified” checkmark on Facebook pages, profiles, and groups. That means Meta has required the entity to prove its affiliation with the company named in its title. That doesn’t mean you will not be approached by scammers from the group, but it does mean the company created it.
2. Do not post your record locator or other personal details on Facebook
It always amazes me when I see people posting record locators and other personal details for all to see on Facebook. There are a lot of things that bad actors can do with that information — including canceling or altering your reservation. They can also use it to gain more information about you. That makes their scheme infinitely easier when they need to convince you that they work for the airline. Don’t give the scammers the information they need to complete their goals.
3. Fraudulent operations love to use WhatsApp
If someone contacts you on WhatsApp or invites you to continue your customer service session there, decline. WhatsApp has become a favorite communication tool of scammers. In the case of Reston, she put the app on her phone at the insistence of one of the many criminals who reached out to her.
Real airline customer service agents don’t ask you to continue your chat on other platforms. But scammers do.
4. Look at the email address
Official airline customer service teams have official email addresses in the company’s domain. Fraudsters will send you information from generic accounts. You can be 100 percent certain you’re not communicating with the airline if your agent is sending you emails with Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or any other email provider that isn’t the airline’s domain.
Remember, anyone can create an email address that has some form of the company in the name field. For instance, UnitedAirlines2026 @gmail com might look official at first glance, but the hosting domain is the give-away.
5. No airline will ask you to use an instant money transfer app
Instant money-transfer platforms are a dream come true in the world of scams. Now, the fraudsters have been able to significantly reduce the time required to complete their schemes.
The tales these con artists tell are typically convoluted and make no sense when analyzed later. The stories serve one purpose: to confuse their victims until the heist is over. Always slow down an make sure the explanation a customer service person is spinning makes sense.
In almost all cases, if you send money to someone via Zelle, Wise, LemFi, Skrill, or any other cash app, you won’t get it back. Reston was lucky that her bank caught some, though not all, of her transactions before they became permanent. That is quite rare… and in the case of Zelle, it is nearly impossible (if the recipient has an active account).
Related: What can you do if you send a stranger a Zelle payment by mistake
Remember, no airline will ask you to download money transfer apps and ask you to send them money to get a refund. That’s a scam.
The bottom line
If you’re looking for airline customer service, Facebook isn’t the place to get it. Download the official app of your airline and use the chat feature there. If you need to escalate your complaint, and reach a real human at the airline, Consumer Rescue’s Your Research Valet can help. We have the name and contact information of customer-facing executives from all airlines to share with you.
If you’re unable to fix your problem through official airline channels, you can file a complaint with The Department of Transportation. The airline will be required to respond to the DOT through that channel and you can be sure scammers won’t be involved.
Of course, you can also send your request for help to the Consumer Rescue advocacy team, just like Reston did. We’ll investigate and help you, too, if we can. Our mediation service is always fast, friendly, and free of charge. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Chief Fiasco Fixer and founder of Consumer Rescue)
