23 November 2023, Johannesburg –
Southern Africa’s leading low-cost airline FlySafair has issued a cautionary note to all its dedicated customers ahead of Black Friday after recent fake Facebook profiles came to their attention. One example is a profile named FlySafair: South Africa’s Favourite Low-Cost Airline, which has been imitating the brand, editing official images to include a 6-month free flights special. The airline is taking the chance to warn consumers to be cautious and verify any sales information they encounter, especially during the festive season.
“FlySafair aims to offer our customers the best possible fares and enjoy bringing our love of flying to a broader audience through our crazy sales,” says Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair. “It is unfortunate that our drive to open the skies to more people is being taken advantage of, especially during the festive season. We would like to ask all our consumers to help us stop these scams by reporting them directly to social media platforms when they see them.”
The scam sale, which has been posted to Facebook, features various official FlySafair staff holding cards claiming to offer the holder six months’ worth of free flights for only a few rands, along with a caption pushing viewers to click a button below, which will redirect them to the official site. The images posted by the fraudulent account may look legit at a glance, but on closer inspection, the poor photoshopping and use of “City of Derry airport” as a location are fairly good giveaways.
“Sadly, our reputation for offering crazy deals might have some customers believing that this one is a possibility and cause them to not look closer at the image,” says Gordon. “We would like to urge all of our customers to please be careful and to verify any deal they might come across before handing over any money or personal information.”
This particular example encourages consumers to click a link to head over to their website, a classic phishing tactic which doesn’t even always require the user to hand over any details, giving malicious groups access to personal information and accounts.
“The best way to verify is to check the name of the account that posted the advert. All the FlySafair social media accounts are verified, which means all our accounts have a little blue tick next to their name,” says Gordon. “If the posting account does not have that blue tick, it is not our official account and clicking any links could put you at risk of being scammed. In these cases, we recommend reporting the post directly to the social media platform.”
You can report scams directly on social media platforms. To report a Facebook page or profile, click on the 3-dots icon under the page or profile’s cover picture. From there, select “Find Support or Report Page/Profile” and follow the on-screen prompts. To report a post, the same icon is found on the top right of the post, giving you the option to “report post”. Instagram is much the same. To report a post, click the three dots above the post and select “Report”.
“FlySafair takes these scams very seriously. While we do everything we can from our side to report and remove posts and profiles like these, the more profiles which report them to the platform, the quicker the scam will be removed,” says Gordon. “We are extremely grateful to those who have brought this to our attention and those who have reported the page. With Black Friday upon us, we encourage everyone to make sure you are using our official channels for any sales activity. Good luck, and happy deal hunting!” concludes Gordon.
Black Friday has risen in popularity in South Africa. Last year 74% of South Africans reported having plans to shop Black Friday deals, resulting in R2.4 billion in in-store spending and R670 million in online shopping. Unfortunately, FlySafair is not alone in warning shoppers about scams during this time. As the popularity of the shopping holiday has risen, so too have the number of international and local malicious groups mimicking well-known brands and taking advantage of shoppers letting their guard down. If you want to find out more about legitimate FlySafair specials this festive season you can find their Facebook, Instagram, and X profiles here or visit their site at flysafair.co.za.