According to posts from a Facebook Page that calls itself “Thomas Cook Fans”, you can win a family holiday to Tenerife just by sharing and commenting or clicking a “sign up” button.
The Facebook Page features the Thomas Cook logo along with videos and photographs related to the UK based travel company.
However, the Facebook Page has no connection to Thomas Cook and it is not giving away any holidays. Facebook users who participate in the bogus giveaways have no chance of winning the promised Tenerife holidays.
Instead, the Facebook Page is a scam designed to trick you into providing your personal information on dodgy websites.
The logo, videos, and photographs used on the scam page are stolen from genuine Thomas Cook websites and social media pages. The image depicting the supposed free ticket envelope was stolen from a January 2018 news report about a Thomas Cook travel agent.
By insisting that people share and comment for a chance to win, the scammers ensure that their fake posts are seen by an ever-increasing audience of potential victims. And, clicking the “Sign Up” button on the page opens an unrelated website that promises the chance to win further prizes in exchange for supplying your name, home address, email address, and phone numbers.
The information you provide will be shared with unscrupulous marketing companies who will subsequently inundate you with suspect “offers” and “deals” for a range of products and services you most likely neither want nor need.
And, no matter how many websites you sign up on, you will never get any entries into the promised Tenerife holiday prize draws. There are no holidays and there will be no winners.
Note that the genuine Thomas Cook Facebook Page, which includes Facebook’s verified icon to prove its authenticity, makes no mention of the supposed holiday giveaways.
If one of these fake posts crosses your News Feed, do not be tempted to participate. Doing so will only help Facebook scammers and, to reiterate, your chances of winning anything are precisely nil.
A screenshot of the scam posts:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
