How can I tell if a flight itinerary is fake?

By searching on BA's website I can't see any flight that leaves at that time, the only scheduled flight from Accra to LHR is after 10pm each night. I also searched several other sites getting the same result, no flight matches those flight times.

The flight code itself leads to a LHR - Accra flight, so it's backwards which is also suspicious.

As pointed out by Weather Vane in the comments, the times are also interesting because they either don't match up, or are not shown in the local times which is very unusual.

As for the London to Florida flight, again, the timings are not shown in any local times, and this flight also doesn't exist on BA's site. The flight code doesn't match anything BA provides. The only flights I can see for tomorrow either go from Gatwick, or have a layover at another airport on the way.

All this put together is pointing towards it being fake, I'm sorry.

This is a fake. One can identify this as follows:

• Note the different in color and size of some of the text, especially in the first flight departure time, the initial 0 is not the same size and color as the 8:00.

• IMHO at least the following have been doctored:

  • first flight number, departure date and time and arrival date,
  • second flight month
  • passenger name.

• BA Flight 81 is LHR-ACC, not ACC-LHR.

• No ACC-LHR flight at that time.

• Using the name and PNR, the BA site does not recognise it.

• No BA Flight 97.

• BA flights LHR-MIA with a different flight number and different times and different aircraft.

So either the original confirmation is very old, or it was already a fake originally!

One more way: go to the airline’s website, put in the surname and the six-character confirmation code. You will immediately get either the full true itinerary or the message that there is no such booking.

Note that it’s still (probably) a scam even if not fake. Trivial to book a flight, copy the confirmation, and then cancel.

Wow this is an obvious fake. The only thing not obvious to me is what reservation they could've used to doctor because this absolutely is not just editing the passenger ... others already pointed out some problems but there are so many more. Here's a few.

It starts with "BA Booking reference" followed by "TG Booking reference". TG is Thai Airways which has nothing to do with a British Airways Ghana-UK-USA flight given that it does not fly to Ghana or the USA at all and also it is not in an alliance with BA.

Further, there is no such thing as a LHR-TPA flight. Plain and simple, no airlines fly directly between those two. You could search BA, Kayak, Google, check ExpertFlyer, whatever you prefer, but it doesn't exist. Also the flight time is not right, from London to east coast USA it takes eight hours more or less, there is nothing in the USA that'd be 12:20, even LAX is only 11:15.

Further, British Airways does not operate the Airbus 340. Right now, they contracted Air Belgium to fly one from London to Toronto for them but otherwise, it's not in their fleet, plain and simple. https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba/fleet-facts Their choice of four engine jet is the 747-400 which they also happen to fly on the ACC-LHR route which takes 6:40 and not 8:20. If we presumed this itinerary was starting from Ghana, well, 8:20 is almost exactly Dubai which is 8:00 but the problem then becomes to find a 12:20 flight from Dubai preferably to the east or so and that doesn't exist, Perth is <11hrs, Melbourne >13. I really can't figure out what they doctored for this...