“Free Southwest Airlines tickets” Facebook scam

A new scam is targeting Facebook users and luring them in with promises of complimentary tickers from Southwest Airlines.

But what makes this scam different and quite likely more effective than your typical Facebook scam is that the installed rogue application doesn’t propagate by posting the luring messages on the Walls of the victims. Instead, it posts it as a comment on a friend’s link, photo or status update – making it look more genuine and, thus, the claim more believable.

The message contains different variations of the following: “sweet! i just got 2 free flight vouchers from Southwest Air to fly to any destination i can think of lmao! i didnt believe it would work but it was, got it here..[goo.gl] link try for yourself i just figured i would share with everyone”

The included link takes the potential victim to a rogue app by the name of SW Gifts which – if installed – can access the victim’s basic information, post on his or hers Wall and access posts in his or hers News Feed.

Having done this, the user is redirected to the following page:

According to Facecrooks, the user will then be required to to complete 13 sponsor offers in order to receive the “free tickets”.

Whether you can actually get the tickets after you shared a heap of personal information with the scammers is unknown, but you can count on receiving “promotional e-mails and special offers from trusted 3rd parties”, as well as being the recipient of various offers via snail mail, text messages and the phone.

If you have fallen for the scam, there is no going back – the information that you gave away is now in the hands of the scammers. But, the least you can do is regain control over your Facebook account, uninstall the rogue application and go through your News Feed and delete the messages it left to avoid your friends falling for the scam.