Is Southwest Airlines Giving Away Free Tickets? Check for Yourself

I've seen it and thought WOW, what a deal. Have you? It's an offer for free tickets on Southwest Airlines. Holy Cow!

Well, this post seems to be making the rounds on Facebook because that's were I've seen it, seemingly originating from a page called "Southwest Air Fans" and it's been shared by other Facebook users.

WZZM wrote about this and used VERIFY to track it down, true or false.

It's very cleaver, because the post says:

“We’ve decided to celebrate our 69th anniversary by giving 2 round-trip tickets to everyone who types (Done) by 5pm Sunday.”

Another post asked people to fill out a survey in order to receive free plane tickets.

Okay, RED FLAG, RED FLAG, RED FLAG! If you looked up Southwest Airlines, first of all you would find that they are celebrating their 51st anniversary this year, not their 69th, as the airline was founded in 1971.

So, the post asks users to complete a survey in order to receive free plane tickets
and many people were searching on Google whether Southwest Airlines is really giving away free plane tickets.

The answer? NOPE! IT'S A SCAM! And, do not take the survey!!

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) says they call this technique  “like-farming” and has several different aims.

When a scammer collects enough likes and shares, they will sometimes edit the post and add something malicious like a link to malware, according to the BBB. Other times, scammers will “strip the page’s original content and use it to promote spammy products.”

Here is another tip. Facebook says you should look for the blue checkmark next to a large company’s name to verify that posts are coming from an authentic account.

Well, nuts! Here I was ready to get my free tickets to fly off somewhere. But, seriously, the old saying is always true, 'if it sounds too good to be true, it's too good to be true!'