That Customer Service Number You Searched For Might Be a Scam

Searching online for a company's phone number isn't as safe as it used to be. Scammers plant fake customer service numbers on websites, forums and review pages so that search results and AI answers repeat them, and the person who picks up can sound just like the real company. In April 2026, Virgin Media O2 found that 1 in 8 people in the UK (13%) had already been shown a fake customer service number by a search engine or an AI tool.

The short version: get the number from the company itself, which means the back of your card, the company's app, your bill or booking confirmation, or the company's own website typed straight into the address bar. Not a search snippet. Not an AI summary. Not a forum post.

What's happening

This scam is old. The delivery is new.

The FTC warned back in 2020 that scammers were creating fake customer service listings for popular companies and paying to get them into search results. Call one and the "agent" offers to fix your problem. There's a catch. You wire money, buy gift cards, share personal details or let them into your computer. The FTC repeated the point on 28 September 2026: scammers and dishonest businesses sometimes pay to appear at the top of search results.

AI answers gave the trick a second life. Search engines and chatbots now read the web for you, boil whatever they find down to one confident answer, phone number included, and put it above everything else on the page, which is exactly where a stressed person looks first. If enough pages repeat a fake number, the AI can repeat it too, on its own, without a page of other results to compare it against.

Real cases

A cruise shuttle that cost $768. In August 2025 The Washington Post reported on Alex Rivlin, a Las Vegas real estate broker getting ready for a European cruise. He searched for Royal Caribbean's customer service number, and Google's AI Overview showed him one. He called. The man who answered knew the shuttle options in Venice, quoted the fees and even waived some of them, which is the kind of detail that makes a caller relax. Rivlin agreed to pay $768. By the next day there were charges on his card from a company that wasn't Royal Caribbean. He cancelled the card. The charges were reversed. "I'm pretty technologically advanced, and I fell for this," he told the Post. Post reporters found the same number listed as the customer service line for Disney and Princess cruises too, on Google and on ChatGPT. Google said it had removed the examples the Post flagged and was working on broader improvements for rarer searches like these, which is fair as far as it goes, but every new number has to be found first.

Airlines. In December 2025 the security firm Aurascape published research showing Perplexity and Google's AI Overview giving out scam numbers as Emirates' reservations line, and Perplexity doing the same for British Airways. Its list of fake numbers also covered American, Delta, Lufthansa, Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, Allegiant, Amtrak and Booking.com. Big names, all of them. The scammers had planted the numbers on compromised or abused government and university websites, on YouTube video descriptions, in fake Yelp reviews and in spam forum posts, written as questions and answers so an AI would pick them up.

To be fair, it doesn't happen on every search. When Gizmodo tried to repeat the test two days later, Perplexity sent it to emirates.com instead. The risk depends on the company and on the exact words you type. That's the problem. You can't tell in advance which searches are clean.

How many people see them

Virgin Media O2's survey of UK adults, published on 24 April 2026, is the clearest measure so far of how many people have actually been shown one of these numbers, and of how much people trust whatever a search engine or an AI puts in front of them:

Younger adults are the ones most likely to have been shown a fake number. Careless? No. They're also the most likely to rely on a number from an AI tool: 19% of 25 to 34 year olds do, against 10% of all adults.

Why it's worse when you're abroad

Look at the fake numbers in Aurascape's research: 18 of the 22 it lists are US toll-free numbers, starting 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 or 888. Nothing about them looks odd.

Now picture the traveller. The real number on the back of their card or on the airline's website is also a 1-800 number. Often, it won't connect. In our own study of US customer service lines, 76% of them were toll-free. Toll-free lines frequently can't be reached from a foreign SIM, so the call fails, the traveller is stressed and standing in an airport or a hotel lobby with a cancelled flight or a frozen card, and they type "international number" or "24 hours" or "from abroad" into a search box. That's where a planted number waits. And that's the moment people stop checking.

So don't hunt for a different number. Call the right one in a way that works. The number on your card, your app or your booking is the safe one, toll-free or not. Use it. CallTuv dials US and Canadian numbers, toll-free included, from a browser or our app for $0.03 a minute, so the 1-800 number printed on your card works from anywhere you have Wi-Fi or data. For banks, our guide to a card blocked abroad lists the regular numbers major card issuers answer from anywhere, and how to call 1-800 numbers online explains the rest.

How to check a number before you call

1. Use something the company gave you. The back of your card, your bill, the company's app, your booking confirmation email. Virgin Media O2's advice is the same: only use numbers from official websites, apps or your bill.
2. Type the company's web address yourself. The FTC's advice. If you do click a search result, check the address bar shows the company's real domain before you trust any number on the page.
3. Look at where an AI answer got its number. If the source is the company's own site, good. If it's a review site, a PDF on an unrelated website, a forum or a video description, don't call it.
4. Search the number itself. Put it in quotes. A real airline line won't also turn up as the number for three cruise lines and a hotel booking site.
5. Hang up on the classic requests. In the FTC's words, no legitimate company will ask you to send gift cards or wire money, or give your password in exchange for customer service help. Be just as wary of anyone who wants remote access to your computer.

If you already called one

Move fast. Call your bank or card issuer on the number printed on the card and tell them what happened. Rivlin cancelled his card the day after his call, and his charges were reversed. If you gave out personal details, the FTC's IdentityTheft.gov builds a recovery plan, and you can report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. In the UK, you can report suspected scam calls and texts to 7726 on any network.

Let someone into your computer? Disconnect it from the internet and change your passwords from a different device.

Frequently asked questions

Can Google's AI Overview give a fake phone number?
Yes. The Washington Post reported a traveller who called a fake Royal Caribbean number shown in an AI Overview and agreed to pay $768, and Aurascape showed AI Overviews giving scam numbers for Emirates. Google says it removes examples it's told about.

How common are fake customer service numbers?
In Virgin Media O2's April 2026 survey, 13% of UK adults said they'd been shown one by a search engine or AI tool, rising to 27% of people aged 25 to 34.

How do I know a customer service number is real?
Take it from something the company gave you: your card, bill, app or booking confirmation, or its website typed in directly. Be wary of numbers that come from a search snippet, an AI answer, a forum or a review site.

What do scammers ask for on these calls?
Your card details for a payment, as in the Royal Caribbean case, or, in the FTC's list, wire transfers, gift cards, personal information or remote access to your computer. The FTC says no legitimate company will ask for gift cards, wire transfers or your password.

The real number is a 1-800 number and I'm abroad. What do I do?
Call it anyway, but from a browser or calling app instead of your foreign SIM. With CallTuv, US and Canadian numbers, toll-free included, cost $0.03 a minute over Wi-Fi or data.

Where do I report a fake customer service number?
In the US, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. In the UK, report scam calls and texts to 7726. Tell the real company too, so it can warn other customers.