Southwest Scam Offers Customers Two Free Tickets
Another scam hit Facebook, this time offering people two free tickets from Southwest Airlines for clicking on a link.
The latest phony offer leads users through a maze of multiple surveys, resulting in no tickets for the users' efforts. Southwest alerted customers through social media Monday, warning them of the fraud.
"Hey folks! There is a scam being passed around on Facebook about a 2 free ticket offer from Southwest. This is not sponsored by us, so please don't click or share the links!" Southwest posted on their Facebook page.
"We are aware of the scam for two free tickets being spread across Facebook. This offer is in no way affiliated with Southwest Airlines and we are working with Facebook to get it removed," Southwest spokesperson Christi McNeill said in a statement.
Scams on the internet are nothing new, especially when it pertains to free tickets to an airline. USC Junior Jonathon Wilson said there is a responsibility on users of social media to avoid the fraud.
"People should know better not to click on them in the first place," Wilson said. "There's a such thing as 'too good to be true.'"
Not everyone used the same judgment when seeing the link for the deal. Freshman Andrew Bushong was one of the Facebook users who fell victim to the Southwest scam.
"It made me basically jump through a hundred hoops to try and get something I was never going to get," Bushong said.
Southwest added some tips to what to look for to avoid future scams.
"For promotions, we rarely deviate from linking to our own website, southwest.com, and our blog, blogsouthwest.com," Southwest Airlines representative Brooks Thomas said. "If we're linking to a third party, the message will always come directly from us."
According to Softpedia.com, a recent bust by the FBI showed a cybercrook gang took in $14 million off a similar scam.
So.............Cool