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Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

meowmixplease
Explorer C

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 5.45.31 PM.pngIMG_1430-1.jpeg

Hi Southwest community!

 

Long time flyer, first time poster. I recently entered a #southwestflightgiveaway after seeing a sponsored ad from the official instagram of Southwest-- SouthwestAir. They were giving away a row of seats to any of their destinations as the prize.

 

I was then alerted that my entry had been selected-- by the official instagram! I was told to enter my information on a link that was submitted. Once I did that, it said that my link "wasn't a winner, and if that was believed to be an error, to contact that domain." It was a webpage outside of Southwest.com but it made sense that they might be running the contest for them. Again, just following the steps of the official SouthwestAir instagram!!

 

I hadn't heard anything so I contacted Southwest via the email on their webpage who told me in reply that this was not a real contest, although they linked the account I had been interacting with as the only official Southwest instagram.

 

I wish I had the posting of the ad I saw that inspired me to make the post, but I feel a little duped that I entered my personal info on a page that might not be legitimate. Also sad that my bachelorette party dreams seem to be slipping away??

 

Please help!

Kat 

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

dfwskier
Aviator A

Morning.

 

If I put two and two together (the response from SW saying there was no contest) and your clicking on a link tht apparently was not Southwest's, I'd guess you were the vistim of a scam to either get your personal information or to install malware on your computer. If it happened to Hillary Clinton, it could happen to you.

 

I'd suggest tht you run an antivirus scan on your computer ASAP,  keep an eye on your FICO score (some credit card companies let you see it for free), and take a look at your credit history. You get three free looks a year (1 for each of the 3  major credit reporting companies). You can do so at 

 

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

Re: Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

chgoflyer
Aviator A
Solution

The contest you entered is legitimate. It was called the Nonstop Love Social Sweepstakes. Full info is here.

 

Unfortunately, "sweepstakes" involving Southwest are often used in phishing scams on social media, and the rep that responded to you simply sent the boiler-plate reply for those taken by such scams. This however, doesn't apply in your case. The rep must not be aware of this specific sweepstakes.

 

The terms and conditions of the contest you entered can be found at the link above, along with the contact info for the company administering the contest for Southwest (HelloWorld, Inc., 3000 Town Center, Suite 2100, Southfield, MI  48075).

 

I'd recommend reaching out to them (try twitter or the instagram account that originally alerted you that you'd won), and also contacting Southwest Customer Relations again (twitter for quickest response). When you do, be sure to mention the name of the sweepstakes, and share the link I posted above, which will help them hopefully realize that this is a legitimate sweepstakes and not a scam.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

kelseyboardsen
Employee
Employee
Solution

Hi Kat!

 

My name is Kelsey, and I work in the Marketing Department at Southwest. I can assure you that the Flight Giveaway program is legitimate, and congratulations on being selected as a winner! I spoke with our partners at HelloWorld, and they let me know that they received your winner paperwork and that you will be joining us on the prize trip. How fun!! 

 

For anyone else that finds this post, I wanted to let you know that the Southwest Flight Giveaway is a legitimate program. More details can be found here: www.southwestflightgiveaway.com. 

 

Sorry for any confusion! Good luck!

Kelsey 

Re: Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

Jemmaymba
Explorer C

Hello! My name is Jemma! 

 

I won the same thing on Twitter and I want to make sure it was real. 

 

https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/1027917491018727424

 

Please someone help me out! 

Re: Instagram Contest "winner"?-- Disappointed and duped??

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

@Jemmaymba,

 

If the message you received was the same as the one above, you've won a real contest. Please see @kelseyboardsen response above for verification. 🙂