Fake Airline Ticket Spam Taking Off

Is your wish to spend the upcoming holidays in Hawaii or the Bahamas? With the recent increase in the volume of airline ticket spam, spammers have made it seem easy to grab cheap (or even free) airline tickets to your favorite destinations. During the holiday season many people travel to visit family and friends. In the current economic environment, cheap deals on airfare will attract users’ attention and spammers take full advantage of this fact.

Symantec researchers are observing an increase in spam that is offering cheap airline tickets or gift vouchers to use towards a purchase of airline tickets. Spam messages are originating with spoofed email addresses, such as “AirlineTickets@spam-domain” and “Free.Airline.Tickets@spam-domain.” The link provided in the message redirects the user to an online form where the user’s personal information and credit card details are requested.

The top 20 headlines used in airline ticket spam are as follows:

Subject: RE: 2 [airline name removed] Airline Tickets
Subject: Fly the skies with cheap airfares.
Subject: Fly Anywhere in the U.S.
Subject: 2 Round Trip Airline tickets. Fly anywhere in the US
Subject: Airfare on us - with this [airline name removed] Airlines Reward Card
Subject: Airline ticket bookings made easier.
Subject: Airline tickets. The quickest way to anywhere.
Subject: Airline tickets to any place in the world.
Subject: Amazing deals across all airlines.
Subject: Book cheap airline tickets now!
Subject: Cheap airfares. Save more, fly more!
Subject: Have some place to go We'll pay for your Airfare!
Subject: It's not too late to receive a companion airline ticket voucher on us.
Subject: Need to Fly for the Holidays?
Subject: Someone sent you [airline name removed] Airline tickets
Subject: [airline name removed] ticket voucher for xxxx - please review today
Subject: You have been chosen to receive 2 free Airline Tickets
Subject: Special airfares that will have you in the air!
Subject: Second chance to receive a companion airline ticket voucher on us.
Subject: Save on Holiday Travel Costs

 
Since there are many fake products associated with such unsolicited offers, users can never be assured that the cheap airline ticket is genuine (if it is actually ever supplied). Users can avoid compromising their data by simply typing legitimate URLs directly into the browser address bar when ordering their supplies, and by not letting curiosity get the best of them when unsolicited offers are sent. Symantec recommends having anti-spam and antivirus solutions installed and up to date to prevent compromising personal information.