The recent fare-slash by Southwest Airlines offering round-trip tickets for less than $100 created quite a frenzy, and underlined the fact that people love a good deal.
And there is no deal better than getting something for free, right?
A number of people around the KARE 11 newsroom and their friends and family have been noticing posts on Facebook saying that Delta is giving away free airline tickets. Traffic reporter and anchor Alicia Lewis forwarded one that says "Delta Airline is giving 2 free tickets to everyone, to celebrate 33rd Annniversary.
Another colleague sent this one from her feed just today. It says "congratulations, you've been selected to take part in a short survey to get 2 free Delta Airline tickets."
Sounds great, but is it legit?
We decided to VERIFY whether or not Delta really is giving away tickets. KARE contacted Delta, and they told us, quote... "There is no such giveaway." The airline spokesperson added that Delta is actually over '90'-years old... so it wouldn't make sense to celebrate a 33rd anniversary.
Flat-out-- we can verify that this offer for free tickets-- is 'false.'
What are posts like this really after? In many cases the scammer asks you to take a short survey, which fraudulent posters use to collect personal data.
By digging a bit deeper, we also found scams like this invoking the Delta name date back to at least 2015, and they seem to be re-appearing every year.
So how can you tell posts like this are fake? Here's one clue. When conducting official business Delta goes by "Delta Air Lines".. and if you look closely at the offer for two free tickets. it says "Delta Airline".. with no 's' at the end.
You should also look for Facebook's "blue verified badge"-- next to the name of the company making the offer. This means that Facebook has verified the page as being authentic.
SOURCE: Delta Air Lines