Fake SAA prize scam could lead to ID theft

This is yet another version of a like/share/prize scam but with a different endgame. There are dozens of like/share/prize scams doing the rounds on the internet each drawing in hundreds of thousands of victims. Variations include give-aways of high end motor vehicles and others offer free flights for a year. The end games of such scams include contributing to the finances of terror, crime (and lately even “religious”) organisations. Once a target of a certain number of likes is reached, the scammers can sell the Facebook page for huge amounts of money. By sharing the post, victims become part of a massive data base of gullible users making an easy mark for personalised scams and spam adverts. Pages with over 50 000 likes sell for hundred of dollars and the price goes up exponentially for more popular pages. Pages with over 1 million likes can sell in excess of $50 000.

Another end game is to advise hundreds of non-related competition entrants (they check your friends lists) that they have won and advise them before collecting their prize they need to pay tax, admin fees, transfer fees or some or other admin costs.

However this SAA scam is quite different although not new (earlier versions date back to 2011) and different airlines including Emirates, North-West Airlines, Delta and others have been used. The prize is not huge which might make some people suspicious – it is merely two free airline tickets. Mostly the scammer makes money through referrals. They spread the fake prize post by forcing you to share the post with at least five groups and/or friends. The next step requires the user to fill in a dodgy survey. The background shown mirrors the real SAA site, but it is completely fake.

The clues here are the fake countdown as to how many tickets are left. If you reload the site, the counter resets and anyone who knows anything about HTML source code can immediately see the page is fake. The counter and the post advising that there are only 109 tickets left is to get you to hurry up with the survey without too much thought. The survey host will at best give the scammer a referral fee for victims filling out the survey and at worst (and most likely) result in ID theft. You may also be directed to an unprotect site which will load malware, spyware and ransomware onto your computer. These viruses will assist scammers in hacking into your computer.

Do NOT share these posts. Delete and report them to your admin or Facebook immediately. Contact the friend who posted it and advise them of the dangers. Stop these scams – knowledge is the only way.

#SAA #scam