Air New Zealand warns customers about anniversary phishing scam

Sunday, 25 March 2018

Air NZ scams have been doing the rounds since January.

Air New Zealand is warning customers about a rekindled scam that's being shared on social media.

The airline has become aware of a phishing scam referencing a '50th Anniversary Giveaway'.

Air New Zealand has warned customers about a '50th Anniversary giveaway' phishing scam that is making the rounds on social media.

In fact the airline is 77 years old, turning 78 on April 30 this year.

Air New Zealand spokeswoman Anna Cross said the company is working to have the scam removed from social media sites.

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She advised people not to click on any suspicious links.

The company reiterated this advice in a twitter post.

We are aware of a phishing scam that is being shared on social media. The scam references a '50th Anniversary Giveaway'. We are working to have this removed. Please do not click on any suspicious links.

— Air New Zealand✈️ (@FlyAirNZ) March 25, 2018

One user replied to the tweet, saying he had seen the scam shared by a number of his friends on Facebook.

This is not the first time scammers have pretended to be the airline in order to entice people into sharing personal information. In 2016, a link which appeared on Facebook redirected web users to an unofficial Air New Zealand website, promising two free airline tickets to anywhere in the world as an inducement to provide personal details.

Participants are asked to answer three survey questions, after which they were required to share the post on their Facebook and send it to 15 of their friends.

It looks like the scam had a second wind in January this year, with several people commenting on Facebook they had fallen for it.

Some commenters pinned blame on Facebook for allowing scammers to use the platform.

One user wrote, 'Facebook [is] quick to prevent innocent photos and videos of individuals being posted so why can't they be quick to intervene with scammers?'

Last year, another scam circulated Facebook offering users two free flights to celebrate budget airline Ryanair's 32nd anniversary. The link redirected Facebook users to a number of fakes websites, including to one called ryanair-bookings.us.

From there it directed users to a malware website where the fraudsters could then get personal details of the user.

This could then lead to users' social media or banking details being hacked.

The Air New Zealand '50th anniversary' scam is the latest in a spate of phishing scams targeting New Zealanders.

Another recent widespread phishing scam was reported by Cert earlier this month. A phishing email was sent to New Zealanders telling the user they had a private message and they needed to access their RealMe account. The link included in the email took the user to a fake RealMe website that asked the user to validate their identity and upload personal documents, like a passport of driver's license.

Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said scammers often used the names of legitimate brands in their scams because people were more likely to trust that it's genuine.

'Well known and trusted brands are often used in phishing scams and unfortunately the airline industry is just one industry that is targeted.'

'We encourage everyone to be vigilant when entering competitions online by checking the organisation's official website or official social media accounts to make sure the competition is genuine.'

If you think you have given personal details to a phishing scam you can report your case to:

* Scamwatch (Ministry of Consumer Affairs)

* DIA (Anti-Spam)

* NetSafe – 0508 638 723

* ConnectSmart

* NZ Police if criminal activity is evident