AirAsia Warns Against New Facebook Scam Using Tony Fernandes’ Name

28th Sep 2016

Tony Fernandes, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Group is in no way involved in the newest Facebook scam and his name and image are being misused, said the Malaysian carrier.

The sponsored ad, which popped up on some Facebook users’ newsfeed leads to articles that supposedly quote AirAsia CEO saying:

They will EAT me alive for this. They want my HEAD for revealing this secret. They’ll take my HEAD, every Malaysian needs to watch this.

If clicked on, the ads take the user to binary options trading scam page. The scammers would then contact the would be victims, using an overseas number and urge them to make a deposit via their credit cards in order to open their binary trading accounts. Of course, as always happens with these scams, the scammers would retain the deposit and the victims would be left with nothing.

Malaysian users, however, counterattacked the scam site and flooded its comment section with warning to its visitors that it is a scam.

Fernandes denied having anything to do with the ad, saying:

Yes, completely false. I have nothing to do with this.

In a statement, the carrier urged the public to trust only its official social media channels and credible news sources if they are looking for info on AirAsia or Tony Fernandes. The airline also warned the public not to share scam articles and to ignore them.

AirAsia X Seeks European Partners

Meanwhile, the long-haul, low-cost subsidiary of AirAsia, AirAsia X is looking for partners for its European routes once it resumes operations to the continent in 2018.

AirAsia X CEO Benjamin Ismail said:

We are looking at the whole Europe opportunity and how it fits into our network jigsaw. We have succeeded in growing across ASEAN by establishing a presence in many markets, but this is not feasible in parts of Europe where major rivals are already well established. Once we fly back to London, we will look to find a partner that day as setting up an AirAsia in UK would be difficult.

AirAsia X last flew to Europe in 2012, using the now retired Airbus A340-300 fleet to serve Gatwick and Stansted airports in London (at different times) and Orly Airport in Paris. The carrier stopped flying to Europe due to weak travel demand and high taxes at the time.

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