A fake contest has been circulating for a few days on the social network Facebook. He promises to win free plane tickets with Ryanair.
On Facebook, a mysterious Facebook page similar to that of Ryanair was created on May 16 and has already accumulated 400,000 comments. She promises free plane tickets in exchange for a simple comment under the publication.
A fake contest
“We’ve decided to celebrate our 50th anniversary by giving away 2 free tickets to anyone who types ‘done’ before 6pm Thursday”, can we read a Facebook page with the color code of Ryanair. After answering “done”, participants receive a message to confirm their participation in the contest.
“Hello. Your voucher is being processed, you must first complete our validation process. To do this, simply click on the blue ‘Register’ button located at the top of our page. Thank you for your participation”
Only problem, the Irish airline is actually only 38 years old. As you will have understood, this message published on May 16 at 2:12 p.m. and its contest are in fact a scam. The deception has already attracted more than 400,000 responses. Namely that the real Ryanair page has more than five million subscribers and has a blue badge to prove its authenticity.
A data stealing form
To carry out its masquerade, the fake Ryanair page has accumulated more than 23,000 subscribers in two days. She then enticed them to click on a link displayed under her banner. A link that redirects victims to a form encouraging them to enter their personal data. For example, their surname, first name, email address and postal code.
This technique is not new, since already in January 2018, the media relayed a fake contest scam on a fake Ryanair Facebook page. The scam post stated “To celebrate 34 years of quality service and usher in 2018!” then, “You have been chosen to take part in our short survey to get 2 free Ryanair tickets. We only have 188 tickets left so hurry up!”.
For the moment, Facebook has not taken any action, or at least not directly. Moreover, until yesterday, the page even appeared in the suggestions of the social network’s search engine when the Internet user entered the term “Ryanair”. Just below the real company page. Today, the page seems to have disappeared. Still, on May 18, the address shared by the fake Ryanair page pointed to a new trap. Namely, a fake “Amazon-sponsored” lottery and the promise of a free iPhone 13 Pro.
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