Last month many American AAdvantage members received a bogus email directing them to click a link that went to a page that looked as though it was part of the American AAdvantage Web site and take a survey to get $50. At the end of the survey, they were asked for detailed personal information. The email was an obvious phishing expedition and it prompted American Airlines to send out their own email to warn members of the phishing email.

The AAdvantage email asked members to log on to AA.com and check their account balance, instructing those who find unauthorized changes to call AA at (800) 882-8880 and say “AAdvantage services,” then select “account information” and ask for an “agent.” Good advice, but having someone access your AAdvantage account could be the least of your worries if you gave your ID information to strangers over the Internet.

The bogus email originated out of Moscow and how they got the email addresses of AAdvantage members is a mystery. But not all members received the email, and some people who were not members received it, so that leads us to believe that the scammers did not get the email addresses from American Airlines.