7 On Your Side warns of summer scam that can leave your travel rewards wiped out

There's a scam making the rounds this summer that begins with a cordial invitation in your email but can have devastating consequences on your built up travel rewards.

Eric Lipkind, "The Miles Man," had more than $3,000 worth of travel points, swiped clear off his frequent flyer accounts, and it all began with a simple party invitation he received in his email.

"So, I logged in, didn't think anything of it, and I got a blank page. Didn't think anything of it, and that was the end of it," he said.

But in reality, things were just getting started. The travel agent, that specializes in flying free with points, was about to be taken on a costly ride with that invite. He had just handed over the keys to his frequent flyer kingdom.

"The scammers went into my email account and set up filters. So basically, I wasn't seeing anything that came in. So, from that they were able to reset the passwords on my United and the American accounts and have all the password reset confirmation emails go to the trash."

In total, between Lipkind and his wife's travel points, 330,000 were converted into gift cards.

"So, in the United account, somebody went in and bought Apple gift cards, and then the American account for both my wife and I, somebody bought Sephora gift cards," he said.

That was worth a total value of $3,300.

"People are getting their miles stolen from their airlines or their hotels. There are just many things criminals can do once they get into your system to wreak havoc," said AARP Fraud Watch Network's Amy Nofziger.

Nofziger says this scam starts when someone else's contact list, with your name in it, gets hacked. So, do not trust any email invites without checking first.

"One of the critical things to do is, if you get one of these party invitations, is to call the person who invited you and say, 'hey, there's this big scam going on, I just want to verify, is this really you sending this invitation?'" Nofziger said. "Make it difficult for these criminals. But do not use the same username and password for all your accounts."

Nofziger says, if you're having a party, do everyone a favor, and pick up the phone and tell your friends they're about to get an invitation.

As for Lipkind, he got all his points back from the airlines, but he needed to submit a police report. So, if this happens to you, report it to your local police.

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