Billions of WhatsApp users are being warned over a scam offering free holidays with travel operator Emirates.
WhatsApp is the most used messaging app in the world, with more than two billion people using it regularly. More than 100 billion messages are sent each day on WhatsApp.
But the platform's popularity has also made it a target for con artists.
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A new WhatsApp message has been reported by many users, promoting a fake "Emirates Airlines 2022 Vacation Giveaway" offering the chance to win free round-trip flights to "Europe, Asia or Domestic". The scam is also said to have appeared on Facebook.
The dodgy link that appears in the message is [tinyurl5.ru/r828452207]. While this website appears to have now been removed, scammers can be quick to set up new dubious sites.
Emirates told Which?: "The recent online competition being shared on WhatsApp offering free flights is a hoax and has nothing to do with Emirates. Our competitions are always run from our officially verified social media channels or our official website Emirates.com."
WhatsApp offers comprehensive guidance on how to avoid scams on its platform.
Part of this advice on its website reads: "If a message looks suspicious or sounds too good to be true, don't tap, share, or forward it. When you receive this type of message, we recommend you report the message, block the sender, and delete the message."
It also lists a number of ways users may be able to spot an untrustworthy message:
- Misspellings or grammatical mistakes
- Asking you to tap on a link or activate new features through a link
- Asking you to share your personal information, such as credit card or bank account numbers, birth date, passwords
- Asking you to forward a message
- Claiming that you have to pay to use WhatsApp
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