BANGKOK, 27 February 2018: Social media users should beware of scams that promise a free airline ticket to lucky winners who complete a survey.
Airlines often reach out to loyalty programme members asking them to complete a simple survey for the chance to win roundtrip tickets.
But now similar survey offers are surfacing on social media and the offer of free airline tickets is luring users to share personal data and information that is harvested by malware ans scammers.
Vietnam Airlines , last week, warned flyers that a social-media free ticket scam that enticed airline customers to participate in the airline’s survey and get two free tickets in return. The site was bogus, designed to obtain data and gain access to social media accounts.
The airline confirmed it had not sent out a survey to its members offering prizes.
The report in Vietnam News Net warned that a malware website that links to http://vietnamair-flyer.club/ promises to give away two Vietnam Airlines’ tickets when customers participate in a survey and share personal information using social network accounts.
Vietnam Airlines disassociated itself from the scam in a statement advising customers not to be click on any survey that purports to come from an airline.
The text fed by the malware is pretty typical of airline-linked scams.
The latest read: “Congratulations! You have been selected to take part in our short survey to get 2 Free Vietnam Airlines Tickets! We only have 332 tickets remaining so hurry!”
The fake message comes with a series of questions such as “Have you ever travelled with us”?
Vietnam Airlines warned its customers that personal information could be stolen, or they may inadvertently assist deceptive behaviour to be passed on to other users on social media.
Travellers should be wary of all online surveys especially from airlines. To avoid the scam trap be vigilant and delete messages that have promotional offers from unknown websites. Do not share personal details, account information or log on to the site.
Airlines in Bangkok often send out these kind of offers for survey participation, mainly to complete survey work on the cheap. However, social media users and even those receiving an email from any airline should be aware of the danger that the message could be fake and could lead to identity theft.
