Social media posts claiming to offer 2 free tickets with SriLankan Airlines and AirAsia has been viral across Facebook luring thousands of people into visiting an external webpage through an online questionnaire.
The Facebook posts appear similar to the below and claims the tickets are being given away by both the airlines to celebrate their “33rd anniversary”.
SriLankan Airlines was founded in the year 1979 and will be celebrating its 28th anniversary in September this year, while AirAsia was founded in 1996 and will be celebrating its 21st anniversary in November. Therefore, please be cautious and note that these links are scams, and has nothing to do with SriLankan Airlines and AirAsia.
Visitors falling and clicking these webpages are directed to a marketing webpage that requires to complete a series of questions and give out personal information to unlock their free tickets. You’ll have to keep in mind that these webpages are designed to gather and collect people’s personal information as much as possible, and the victims will be targeted with more scams and spam via the information collected by the owners of these webpages. The visitors then share the webpage links on their social media channels including the Facebook timeline, sending the link directly to their Facebook friends, boosting the scam wider across the networks. Both airlines have already confirmed the scam and advised Facebook users to disregard these posts, furthermore that the airline will not be held liable for any claims related to the scam.
AirAsia, in a statement, said “We will pursue legal action against individuals or groups conducting schemes with AirAsia branding without permission, a police report has been already lodged and the investigation is in progress.”
If you are in doubt about such airline invitations and offers on Facebook, always refer to the respective airline’s Facebook page, before you participate or share it with your friends. You never know what’s next, it could be the people who you gave away your personal information and telephone number, calling you from an overseas number pretending to be someone else to tell you that you won a false lucky draw. So, be very careful, giving away your personal information online and sharing links on Facebook.
No Comments