Fake Qantas Facebook Page Promises Free Flights
Qantas is the latest airline to be targeted by email scammers andis warning customers that fake Qantas "seat selection" emails are circulating. The airline has advised via its Twitter and Facebook accounts that the emails did not come from Qantas and should be deleted immediately.
According to a purportedly genuine Facebook post, the airlinr is giving away free flights in exchange for commenting and sharing on social media. The fraudulent post claims that Qantas is giving away business class flights to "everyone". The posts are poorly worded and link through to websites that are clearly not Qantas' official site.
The airline has alerted its Facebook community to the fake deal that has resulted in more than 85,000 likes, 15,000 comments and over 100,000 shares. Supposedly, the giveaway is to thank loyal customers for their support as COVID-19 restrictions ease and flights resume. The post promises that 500 people who share and comment on the post by a specified date and time will get a free round trip flight to their desired destination.
The post, which was published via a Facebook Page named “Qantas Air” features several photos of a Qantas aircraft.
Despite its appearance, however, the post has no connection to Qantas and those who participate have no chance whatsoever of winning any free flights. In fact, the post is a typical give-away scam designed to promote a bogus Facebook Page.
Facebook scammers create fake giveaways like these as a means of increasing the like-numbers and potential reach of their fraudulent Pages.The scam is about generating as many likes as possible in the shortest amount of time, and also potentially defrauding the related affiliate programs of retail sites such as Amazon.
Once the scam Pages have become a lot more popular via such fake giveaways, they can be used to launch further scams that, this time, can reach a much larger audience. Or, in some cases, the scam Facebook Page may be sold to other scammers who will repurpose it for their schemes. Be wary of any post that claims that you can win valuable prizes such as flights, holidays, or cars just by liking, sharing, and commenting.
Currently, many such scams are attempting to capitalise on the COVID-19 pandemic. A Qantas spokesman told Australian media that the airline reported the page to Facebook and it had been removed.
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