Virgin Airlines Australia “Holiday Giveaway”; Facebook Scam
The original site is no longer online; links go to the Internet Archive copy.
The claim
Facebook Page calling itself “Virgin Airlines Australia” claims that a family of three has just pulled out of a trip to Bali so Virgin has decided to give away the holiday to a fan. Supposedly, all you need to do for a chance to win is like and share the giveaway post.
A family of 3 has just pulled out of a holiday to Bali on March 20th – 27th. Since its such last-minute we thought why not give it to a fan, everything is already paid for (3 People). Like ✔ Share ✔
What the fact-checkers found
The Facebook Page is fraudulent and it is not associated with Virgin Australia in any way. The promised prize does not exist and those who participate have no chance of winning anything at all.
The fake Facebook Page is a scam designed to accumulate large numbers of Facebook likes as quickly as possible. Once the Page has collected a large number of likes, it can then be reused to launch other types of scam. Alternatively, it might be sold on the black market to other scammers.
The genuine Virgin Australia Facebook Page, which features Facebook’s blue “verified” icon, makes no mention of the supposed giveaway. Virgin and a number of other high-profile airlines around the world are regularly targetted in Facebook like-farming and survey scams.
This Hoax-Slayer YouTube video explains more about how like-farming scams work:
Refer to the following resources for further details about such scams:
Facebook Like-Farming Scams
Like-Farming Scam List
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