Facebook “free plane tickets” scams

Don’t be tricked by the impossibly good offers that have lately been popping up on Facebook profiles. There are no free ticket giveaways – there’s only the possibility of getting your profile abused by the applications that you are required to install in order to receive them.

Supposedly, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways are giving free tickets to Facebook users, but that could not be further from the truth.

Actually, if you click on the offered link you are asked to install a third-party application – “4freedeltatickets” or “JetBlue Family” – that requests you permission to access your basic profile information, send you e-mails, post on your Wall, access your data any time, and manage your events and pages.

According to Graham Cluley, once you’ve done that you are redirected to a page where the scammers will try to trick you into signing up for a premium rate cell phone service. In the meantime, the application that you have allowed access to your profile has been posting the same message you fell for on your Wall and added you to events:

If you have fallen for the scam, delete the applications in questions (go to Account/Privacy Settings/Applications and Websites), delete every status message and event it has added to your profile, and contact your cell phone provider to notify them of the situation.