You may have come across an advertisement on a “Ryanair France” page offering Internet users free plane tickets to celebrate the company’s anniversary. This is a scam.
“We’ve decided to celebrate our 50th anniversary by giving away 2 free tickets to anyone who hits ‘done’ before 6 p.m. Tuesday.” This post has been seen and commented on by hundreds of thousands of users on Facebook. Posted on May 16, it is possible that you too have come across this ad, which is particularly attractive as the summer holidays approach.
The message shared by the “Ryanair France” account.
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Form to fill out
Except it was, of course, too good to be true. And the Facebook account that shares the announcement is not the official account of the airline. Underneath the many comments, following the instructions in the ad, a response from the “Ryanair France” page stating: “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.”
By following the register button, Internet users came across a form-type page with information to fill out. Among them, the surname, the first name, the email address or the postal code. While it is difficult to determine for what purpose this information will be used, the goal remains to recover personal data. They should not be communicated, unless you are certain of the authenticity of the page which claims them.
An account with few followers
Several elements can put the chip in the ear concerning this type of announcement. Particularly lack of account certification (the small blue dot affixed to the name, guaranteeing the authenticity of a page), or again the number of subscribers, very low in this case, compared to the real Ryanair page on Facebook, which has almost 5 million “Likes”.
The page is not certified and has too few subscribers.
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It would seem this Thursday, May 19 that the Ryanair France page that shared the misleading ad no longer exists. On the other hand, a new Ryanair France page exists, it only has 3 likes and has already shared a new “game” to win tickets.
This kind of post is broadcast.
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Before participating in online games, be careful if the offer is too attractive, there may be a wolf.
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