Social media users should beware of online scams purporting to offer free Aer Lingus flights.
One scam asks users to fill out a questionnaire for a chance to win Aer Lingus tickets in celebration of Aer Lingus’ 80th anniversary. Once they have completed the questionnaire, users are told they have won two free tickets to anywhere in the world and are taken to a bogus Aer Lingus website where they are asked to share the promotion with 15 friends and text €2 to a number to claim tickets.
Recently, the national airline took to Twitter and Facebook to warn its followers not to fall for the scam. Its Facebook post, complete with a photo of the phony post, reads: “We’re aware of an online scam offering free Aer Lingus tickets. This is NOT an official Aer Lingus promotion. For your own information security, please don’t click on any posts in your newsfeed similar to this one.”
Another similar scam involves a phony competition run by a sham Facebook page called Aer Lingus Ireland. The post asks users to like the post, leave a comment on the post saying what city they are from, and share the post with their friends for a chance to win flights to Paris, London, or New York and €10,000 spending money. The post has since been removed, but not before it managed to fool tens of thousands of Facebook users.