Internet scammers They claim on Facebook, that Liszt Ferenc International Airport will auction off the remaining luggage at the airport for only 800 forints. By pressing the button below the image attached to the post, the unwary Internet user was taken to a page similar to this To the Budapest Airport website. However, as long as it is available on Bud.hu, the link leads to Lostbag3.shop.
The website contains the airport’s official logo and the colors used are almost the same as on the official website. There is a countdown clock, indicating that there are only 30 minutes left in the sale. You can open the page at any time, and there will always be exactly 30 minutes left.
Fake website created by scammers – Screenshot: Telex
For an unsuspecting user, the site can inspire trust because of the logo, and this is compounded by pretending that the site has already received thousands of reviews. What’s more, if you scroll down, you’ll see Facebook posts in which happy customers write about how much treasure they found in the cheap bags. They also post pictures of this, and many people comment on how lucky they are.
In order to make a purchase, a questionnaire must be filled out, after which it turns out that the user is lucky, he has just won a lost piece of luggage, for which he only has to pay the shipping cost. Meanwhile, a pop-up message appears in the upper right corner every time the page loads, saying that Ferenc Móra won lost luggage 27 seconds ago. If you wait too long, other names will appear.
Next, you have to enter more personal and banking details – and this is where the problem can start, because by misusing these details, scammers can debit your account more than the shipping cost.
The post received 170 reactions, 130 comments, and 36 shares in one day. Many commenters write how satisfied they are with the service. However, it is noteworthy that people with non-Hungarian names – for example Mihaela Rašianu and Eulin Fiano – exclaim the opportunity in quintessential Hungarian. Among the comments, it is not easy to find a user whose profile looks real.
This isn’t a completely new type of scam, but it has gained a lot of steam in recent weeks. Multiple airports also Official announcement Grant Get out of itthat such fraud is being done in their name.
While writing the article, the post disappeared from Facebook. But the profile, who uploaded it, is still available, and you can see that he has tried several times with similar posts in the past few days. However, they didn’t spend nearly the resources on it that were taken down, they didn’t have bots sent to them, and they didn’t even include a link to the phishing site.
Another proof that this is not the official Facebook page of Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (Because that’s it): If you scroll down a little, you can see that between July and the end of November, the page took a big break, and before that I published posts about Guatemala. For example, about where you could get a Covid vaccine at the beginning of 2022. This suggests that the previously used site was only recently used for airport fraud.
In connection with this matter, we have also contacted the Communications Directorate of Budapest Airport. They wrote in their response that they knew about such sites. Indeed since October, when they took appropriate steps and issued a statement.
He added: “Facebook shut down the fraudulent page within a few days after the announcement, but another page was created around the same time, and we also took the necessary steps regarding that.” Unfortunately, similar fraudulent sites have appeared at other airports in the recent period, so we ask travelers to be extra careful.”
They wrote. “Identified baggage left at the airport is handled by ground handlers and they attempt to return it to its owners.”
