Hawaii BBB: Delta Airlines ticket giveaway on Facebook a scam
Survey presented to gain tickets could lead to identity theft
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The Maui News
The Hawaii Better Business Bureau reported a scam circulating on Facebook claiming to give away two Delta Air Lines tickets in celebration of the airline's 88th anniversary.
The post encourages people to like and share the post, increasing its dissemination, and to fill out a survey with personal details, the BBB said Tuesday.
Delta says on its website that the post is a scam and asks users to report the posts to Facebook. In fact, Delta was established in 1923, which makes the airline 94 years old.
This scam very closely resembles the Hawaiian Airlines scam from earlier this year. The scam promised free tickets in exchange for filling out a survey requesting personal information, placing the victim at risk for identity theft, the BBB said.
The BBB reminds consumers to be hesitant of online giveaways and to always verify with the host company that the giveaway is real.
Signs of a fake online ticket giveaway include:
• Use of outdated branding. If a contest is using old branding, it is likely a fake promotion.
• Not hosted on the company website. If a link sends users to a website that is not the official company website or does not have any links or affiliations to the official website, then it could be a fake promotion.
• No official rules are available. If the contest does not have an official legal rules or website, then it is likely a scam.
• Entry method required. Many of the scams will ask users to complete a survey or share the promotion with a specific number of friends in order to receive the free tickets. While some promotions will give users the opportunity to share the giveaway, it will not be required for entry.
Consumers should be sure to report these posts to Facebook as spam. This scam and others like it can also be reported using the BBB Scam Tracker at www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us/.