A Ryanair customer has been left horrified after receiving an "offensive" security code for his flight.
Joseph Jackson, 43, from Chessington, Kingston-Upon-Thames, claimed the airline sent him an "inappropriate" security code with the word "c***" in it.
Joseph created an account on the Ryanair website last Sunday, March 19, hoping to purchase tickets on behalf of his relatives, so they could fly into Stansted airport from Dublin to visit him.
However, he was left in utter "shock" when he was sent over an email, which contained the C-word in the eight-digit activation code.
The email began by welcoming Joseph to myRyanair before encouraging him to verify his account by using the security code 'd9c***g5'.
The "potty-mouthed" security code was followed with a stern warning not to 'waste too much time' as the "sweary" sequence would only be valid for 30 days.
The project manager was left in disbelief and branded it totally "unacceptable".
He said: "I was shocked that a company of that size doesn't have [the correct] measures in place.
"I think it's clearly unacceptable and about as offensive as a word can be."
Joseph claims he was in such disbelief that he would have thought the email was a 'hoax' if he hadn't typed his details into the Ryanair website minutes prior.
However, Ryanair was unapologetic and rejected the customer's claims that he had received an "inappropriate word"
They maintain that it was not intentional and simply a "randomised sequence of letters and numbers generated using a third party".
Joseph believes that the popular airline needs to "strengthen their IT system".
"In my line of work we have to have filters to ensure that we're covered in things like that", he said.
"If I hadn't been doing it [signing up for the website], I would have assumed it was a hoax.
"You don't know what sort of words can go out to other people, and other people may be more easily offended by words of that nature.
However, Joseph believes there was no ill intention from Ryanair but advises them to take more precautions.
"I know there's no malice from Ryanair's side - it's just a really poor oversight in their IT vetting", he said.
"They should strengthen their IT systems to prevent anything like this from happening in the future."
In a Tweet, Joseph shared the screenshot of the offensive email on the same day.
The caption read: "Might want to ban vulgar words from your automatically generated security codes @Ryanair, pretty shocking that something like this can slip through."
Ryanair, which is currently "looking into" the issue, has yet to respond to Joseph's tweet.
Although he went ahead and purchased his plane tickets, Joseph claims that the experience may impact whether he chooses to fly with Ryanair in the future.
"I've shown the email to a couple of friends. Their reactions were a mixture of comedy and utter disbelief", he said.
"I haven't had the best customer experience from Ryanair, period. I try to avoid them where possible.
"I guess after this, it certainly wouldn't draw me to using them any more than I have been in the past."
A spokeswoman for Ryanair has rejected the claims that Joseph received an inappropriate word in his security code.
They added: "This is a standard security code mechanism in which customers receive a randomised sequence of letters and numbers generated using a third party to verify access to their accounts."
