I received an e-mail January 2, 2012 from American Airlines <[email protected]>.

Here is the text of that message:

Hello

FLIGHT NUMBER A478AB
ELECTRONIC 940502965
DATE & TIME / JANUARY 18, 2012, 10:53 PM
ARRIVING / Fremont
TOTAL PRICE / 278.32 USD

Please find your ticket attached.
You can print your ticket.

Thank you for your attention.
American Airlines.

The e-mail had a “Ticket.zip” attachment.  I tried to open it up on a Mac computer but it would not show.

The e-mail was sent to a web site address that I have for a city organization that I administer a web site for.  It appeared to me that someone in my small group had organized a trip to Fremont, California for some training.  It took hours to track this down but I slowly realized that this whole thing was an alleged spam.

I called American Airlines, which by the way has an alleged dreadful reputation, and after about eighteen minutes of waiting was told that this is a spam e-mail and customer service has been getting a LOT of calls concerning this event.  I was told that legitimate e-mails from American Airlines includes a logo and ticket numbers.  My e-mail had neither.

The American Airlines customer service person told me to NOT open up the attachment and to delete the e-mail.