Competition doing the rounds on facebook....

Just appeared on my feed. Claims to give away 500 "First class" seats (quoted part makes me concerned, Virgin don't typically use the term first class, do they?)

The page is from something called Virgin Airlines. Which seems to be a community of something...

"Virgin Airlines.
Today is an incredible day at Virgin Airlines as we are officially celebrating seating over 150 million passengers since 2014!! To celebrate we are giving away 500 FREE first class flights for the entire year to a few of our lucky fans!!

To enter for your chance to win simply follow the rules below!
You Must Complete The Following:
1. SHARE this photo!
2. Like This Page Family Vacations Today.
3. Comment Thank You.

Winners will be decided on July 11 2015

Remember to Like our page to see who won."

This is Spam. VS have responded to it on their official and approved FB page.

People that like these pages and share their details so freely almost deserve to be scammed.

*pulls out the calculator*

Lets assume this is VS they're talking about.

39 aircraft (according to wiki), and (when averaging the 744 passenger numbers) if every single plane was full that would be 1262 passengers. Assuming "since 2014" means the beginning of 2014, then thats 118,858 flights those 39 planes need to have made. Each plane needs to have flown 3048 times to make 150 million passengers. That breaks down further to 160 flights a month.

Which means 5 revenue flights a day each for each jet to make.

SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE

Absolute scam...Virgin Atlantic competition with a profile picture of Virgin Australia!
Asking to share and comment thank you!
Scam!

*pulls out the calculator*

Lets assume this is VS they're talking about.

39 aircraft (according to wiki), and (when averaging the 744 passenger numbers) if every single plane was full that would be 1262 passengers. Assuming "since 2014" means the beginning of 2014, then thats 118,858 flights those 39 planes need to have made. Each plane needs to have flown 3048 times to make 150 million passengers. That breaks down further to 160 flights a month.

Which means 5 revenue flights a day each for each jet to make.

SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE

Is there a decimal place in the wrong place somewhere?

I'll check the sums again, but a few points are being fudged (when "since 2014" means, this is VS and not all Virgin branded airlines, and all 747 passenger numbers are being averaged) but..... i dont think i missed a decimal point

*retires to my daydream of being in the clubhouse instead*

[honey lamb]

The fact that it branded itself as Virgin Airlines was an immediate giveaway and there are numerous "Share and like" posts for seemingly reputable companies on FB on an almost daily basis. I've often wondered about the consequences of replying to these posts and I know of at least two of my FB friends who have done just that, (not to the Virgin one) and have had their page hacked and now unknowingly post spam!

I just wanted to add maths to the proceedings - the numbers don't lie!

[Pete]

A lot of these things spring up on Facebook. The old rule applies, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. You can very quickly check the legitimacy of these things (if the spelling mistakes and factual errors in the post are not enough) by visiting the page of the poster. If it's a new account with only a handful of posts, then it's almost certainly a like-bait scam. Basically they try and get as many likes as possible, then sell the account on with a page name change.

In some cases they're more sophisticated and get you to unwittingly authorise their 'app' to access your details and post on your Facebook page. And then you're in for a whole world of spam.

I see too many of my friends falling for these things and wonder why they can be so gullible sometimes.

I reported it to VS, and Virgin Australia via Twitter a few weeks ago when it first hit. There is a Qantas one going around now too!!

Typical "Like-Fishing" page!

These pages can be identified because

They mangle the name of the company - Virgin Airlines or Virgin Airline's

They use FB 'community' pages rather than the 'company' ones

They usually have extraneous punctuation e.g. an extra full stop or apostrophe

No info in the 'about' section. If they post a web link it is usually the genuine one but they rely on people not clicking through. Pictures don't usually match either (though this is not an exclusive sign after all supposed quality news papers regularly post pictures of the wrong plane and call Upper First class)

Many of my friends when they tell me these things, they somehow think they justify their stupidity by saying "it really looked official and lots of other people fell for it too".

Many of my friends when they tell me these things, they somehow think they justify their stupidity by saying "it really looked official and lots of other people fell for it too".

Yes, I see friends who I think are pretty intelligent and clued-up liking these pages and I start to hover over the option of de-friending them!

I'm very firmly in the camp of those who think anyone daft enough to fall for such rubbish deserves everything they get. Which won't be a year's worth of free flights or a brand new Range Rover.