Southwest Airlines ticket scam goes viral on Facebook, prompting alert from carrier | #datingscams | #lovescams | #facebookscams

The now-deleted post received over 1 million responses and 6,000 shares before it was taken down. The official Southwest Airlines account noted in its own post that the offer was a “scam” and warned travelers to always check for verification of a post’s authenticity before engaging.

“Many of you may have seen this post from a fake account claiming to offer two roundtrip tickets,” the airline stated. “While we like great flight deals as much as the next airline, this one is unfortunately not real, and wasn’t posted by Southwest Airlines.”

Southwest further noted that the bogus anniversary claim was about 18 years off the mark. 

“For the record, we’re celebrating our 51st anniversary this year, not our 69th,” the post stated. 

A personal blog called “Southwest Air Fans” still exists on Facebook. Its only post, made Sunday, asks users to “like” its page and complete a “registration” process on another site in exchange for tickets.

Some users responding to Southwest’s scam alert were amazed that so many people had seemingly fallen for the ploy.

“Use your brain people,” commented user Marc Barrison. “Does anyone really believe that a major corporation is going to give away billions of $ in goods and services. I saw the same thing for Texas Roadhouse today as well. A little critical thinking goes [a long] way.”

Southwest Airlines is among a number of U.S. carriers that have cut flights from their spring schedules and raised ticket prices amid booming demand in 2022. The price of airfare has risen more than 40 percent in the United States since the beginning of the year and ticket prices are projected to balloon another 10 percent by the end of May.