Everyone loves a good deal; especially Facebook users.
Well, some are cashing in on this latest scam, claiming Facebook users can get two free Southwest Airlines tickets, just for filling out a survey online.
The scam says they're celebrating Southwest's 88th Anniversary, but Southwest Airlines was founded on March 15,1967 — making the company only 50 years old. The Facebook headline, also spells the company's name with a capitalized "W." Southwest's official logo has the "w" as a lower-case letter.
So what about the URL? The Facebook post will show the website URL in light gray text under the title. These posts link to websites like freesouthwest.us or southy.us. The airline's actual website is www.southwest.com. Southwest will only link to that official URL when the deal is legitimate.
Here's an example of one of the posts being shared on Facebook right now:
So why do scammers do this? They want users to click. Then, they want you to fill out people to provide personal information so that they can fill email inboxes with a crazy amount of marking campaigns. Then, they want Facebook users to share the post with friends and keep the scam circulating on Facebook, ultimately, claiming more victims.
Even Snopes.com has confirmed the Southwest post is a scam. They will never give away free air travel tickets to those who follow online links.
Moral of the story, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
