Airline miles are easy theft targets

In the latest scam on consumers, cyber crooks are using emails and other tactics to phish for your airline miles, using them on hotels, cars and merchandise. Have a look at the link below for the complete article.
Why your airline miles are easy theft targets - Jennifer Waters's Consumer Confidential - MarketWatch
I actually got one of these letters a while back, but did not act on it because the note referred to the carrier as "US Airlines" which sounded too vague to me. Good thing I didn't fall for it.

I don't get this--when my father passed away, I had to FAX Delta with correct form completed to "will" his miles to the four of us. How does anyone steal miles from an account unless someone is stupid enough to give out their user name/account/password. It took 3 wks to process the transfer and it was totally secure. To this day, we are all grateful for the 40K we each rec'd. Thanks, Pop!

It seems you have to jump through quite a few hoops when you have a legitimate claim to have miles transferred, but some savvy crooks have nonetheless managed to have a great time on somebody else's miles. Just be careful and keep track of your miles. I check my miles on a regular basis, also, just to make sure that airlines, car rental agencies, hotels and credit cards paste the correct miles and bonuses to my account. FF miles can be a pretty good currency, especially on long haul and long term flights.

It's amazing that people can come up with so many different ways to rip off other people.