(Canada) Westjet booking transaction fail scam

TLDR: ALWAYS USE THE APP. ONLY PHONE NUMBERS FROM THE APP. I feel stupid.

I booked a flight for a group, received confirmation and everyone got booking codes. But I had a pop up on the site saying "transaction failed". So I went looking for a phone number to call, couldn't easily find one ,frustrated went to perplexity pro (a paid AI) and asked it for the customer service number. Turns out the AI gave me a number that was not Westjet, but a scammer.

Scammers are travel agents in india who rebook the flight (legitimately) at their travel agent discount (418 vs 500 per flight) but make up the difference with a second charge, for "taxes". So I wasn't technically out of pocket. But just feeling suspicious, I called westjet (not the AI number, the real westjet ), who said all was well with the new booking -- except it had the wrong email address. Additionally, they only confirmed the lower price, no knowledge of an extra 'taxes' charge. The supervisor asked how I got the phone number for westjet and said there's all kinds of spoofing of website scams and fake numbers out there, always to use the APP. So I cancelled my credit card and hopefully the charge for "tax" will get reversed. Westjet also went into the booking and removed it from the travel agent's account and made a whole new booking*.

*The potential was in addition to the fake tax amount, they cancel the booking and take the flight amount too. Since it was the wrong email address on the booking, I wouldn't be notified.

I do have an email address of the scammers, the one they kept on the booking, and also the customer service person who sent some document which when I read later, was some sort of fake contract accepting the value of the flight plus tax. Westjet (the real one) were so amazing in handling this and honoured the cheaper price for the flight.

Hope this helps someone.