A British Airways Black Friday WhatsApp giveaway scam goes viral

We had a few emails from readers who have seen a British Airways Black Friday giveaway promotion pop up in their WhatsApp feed, forwarded by a friend. Given the amount of Google traffic to a post about this in our forums, it must be very widespread.

There are elements to it which are convincing, although the language and imagery used should be enough to raise your suspicions.

BA has confirmed to us that it is, indeed, a scam.

This is what you may see in your feed. It will be forwarded by someone you know, because winners are obliged to forward the offer to 20 friends in order to ‘validate’ their prize.

This is vaguely realistic, although the colour and font used at the top – plus of course the URL – should concern you.

When you click through, you get this:

There are elements of this which look real, although issues with the English – ‘2’ instead of ‘two’, the clunky ‘Do you know British Airways?’ question, the weird ‘Greetings’ salutation – would be a flag to most.

Let’s not mention the use of an A380 for a European flight giveaway.

What IS realistic is the prize. Offer 5,000 First Class flights to Sydney and no one is going to believe you. Offer 5,000 economy flights to Europe over the quiet Winter period and it sounds perfectly reasonable.

Rhys has never knowingly turn down the chance of a free flight, so ploughed on. Amazingly, he was a winner:

Interesting use of 1990’s ticket stock there …..

This is where it went weird though. When he clicked ‘ok’, he was taken to a totally different scam claim page. Suddenly he was thanked for filling in an Amazon customer survey and congratulating him on winning a new iPhone in return for £2 postage!

Unsurprisingly, British Airways told us:

We are aware of a fraudulent promotion that is being shared via WhatsApp and social media, which has been reported. This message is not from British Airways and we advise anyone who receives it not to click any links and to report it as spam or delete it.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.