“Get Two Free Southwest Tickets”; Facebook Survey Scam

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Last updated on July 15, 2017

The post is fraudulent. It is not associated with Southwest Airlines and participants will never receive the promised tickets. The post is a scam designed to trick you into giving out your personal information on dodgy survey websites.

According to a post that is currently being distributed across Facebook, you can get 2 free flight tickets courtesy of Southwest Airlines. Supposedly, the giveaway is part of the airline’s 88th-anniversary celebrations and the company is giving EVERYONE free tickets. The post includes an image depicting one of the supposed free tickets. It urges you to click to get your tickets.

However, the post has no connection whatsoever to Southwest Airlines and clicking it will certainly not get you any free flight tickets. There are no tickets and no winners. The scam first tries to trick you into spamming your Facebook friends with the same bogus giveaway. It then entices you to submit your personal information on suspect third-party “survey” websites.

If you click the post in the hope of getting your free tickets, you will be taken to a fraudulent website that asks you to provide answers to a pointless survey about your recent airline travel. The answers you give do not matter. The site’s fake analysing process will always find that you have indeed won the free air tickets.

You will then be asked to share the page on Facebook and post the comment “Thanks #SouthWest Airline!” You will also be instructed to click a Facebook like button.

By tricking people into spamming the fake prize giveaway across Facebook, the scammers know that they will gain many more victims.

After sharing, liking, and commenting, you can then click the ticket claim button. But, you will still not get to claim your air tickets. Instead, you will be told that you must first validate your claim by filling in one or more surveys. A pop-up window will provide you with a list of links to various surveys.

The links open websites that offer the chance to win further prizes in exchange for filling in surveys and providing your name and contact details. But, fine print on the sites will state that, by supplying your information, you are giving permission for the sites to share your details with online marketing firms.

Thus, soon after participating, you will begin receiving unwanted phone calls, text messages, emails, and surface letters that try to sell you a range of products and services.

The scammers will earn commissions each and every time a person supplies his or her details on one of the survey sites.

And, no amount of participation will ever get you the promised tickets, which never existed in the first place.

Scams like this one are extremely common. New versions appear on Facebook every day. Be wary of any post or Facebook Page that promises valuable prizes just for sharing, liking, and filling in surveys.