SALT LAKE CITY — A Saratoga Springs man has been accused of hacking into United Airlines’ website, stealing travel vouchers and then turning around and selling them.
Ammon Cunningham, 28, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with felony computer crimes, theft, communications fraud and pattern of unlawful activity. Court records show a $50,000 warrant was issued for his arrest.
An affidavit of probable cause filed with the charging documents claims Cunningham (who went by the alias Jacob Colvin) hacked into the airlines’ website in 2012, obtaining PIN codes for United’s Electronic Travel Certificates. Investigators with the Utah Attorney General’s Office allege he then sold them on online classified sites. United Airlines claims the hack attack cost them $58,123.
The affidavit claims that in September 2012, Cunningham emailed United Airlines telling them he was “an executive at a startup company and travels often.” He told the airline he found a “massive hole in the United.com site” and was willing to disclose it if he was paid $10,000 and given first class airfare to any destination at no cost for himself, his wife and his child.
Cunningham is scheduled to make a court appearance on Friday.
