Over the past week, I have noticed that multiple U.S Zoos (namely Memphis and Woodland Park among others) have had spammers create accounts under the zoo's name and then advertise fake promotions for discounted tickets which say "Four tickets for $6.95 to celebrate ___ years." I want to know if this is a worldwide thing happening with hundreds of zoos or if it is just a few zoos that are receiving that spam. Here is Memphis's "promotion" to show you what I mean here: Memphis Zoo Facebook Scam: $6.95 Tickets Lure Unsuspecting Animal Lovers
It happened at the San Francisco Zoo too. There is some coordinated fraud campaign across the United States.
It seems North Carolina, Brevard, Cheyenne Mountain, Minnesota, Little Rock and possibly Phoenix have also been targeted as they have all posted alerts on Instagram over the last week. There's definitely some sort of concentrated and coordinated effort targeting zoos across the nation with fraudulent promotions.
Omaha, Los Angeles and Sedgwick County recently got attacked too with the same exact scam. This is clearly a nationwide thing now.
I believe this is a common scam internationally as I saw the same advertisement a few months ago for New Zealand’s main theme park. Four tickets for x amount to celebrate x amount of years. The number of years didn’t match the attraction (you think they’d at least bother to check that); there was no mention of the promotion on the site’s official page; and most tellingly, the ad was swarmed with ‘supportive’ comments from fake profiles saying “OMG everyone, I can’t believe this worked. I just got my four tickets.”
Every day, I am seeing more and more zoos post PSAs on Instagram warning about the scam, so this seems to be a VERY widespread effort and no major zoo is being spared. And it's the exact same scam specifics every single time. It seems to be especially targeting zoos that are or are close to celebrating a milestone anniversary (for example, the Maryland Zoo, which is approaching 150 years old).
I have lost count of how many zoos and aquariums in the USA have posted about the scam, it seems like it was probably almost all of them.
I may just be under a rock as I am barely on social media and don't really get these ads because of that so I haven't been a victim or witness to these ads but it's definitely a scam if you see one of these for the Detroit zoo as the tickets there go for 24 to 27 last I remember.
I just got one for Central Park Zoo! It felt off so a google search led me here! Thanks for the forum!
I saw this on FB a few days ago about Chester zoo being 100 years! And someone actually said they had called the zoo and asked if it were true, they said it was, and then they ordered the 4 tickets. I think it was for 9,95£. So it's very confusing, going from the comments lots of people had bought them.
Czech zoos suffer from similar but not identical scam. Here, a fake copy of a zoo site replicates a running contest for tickets. Every person that replies gets an answer they won. And they are asked for personal data and bank details. Majority of local zoos were targeted by this type of scam within last 12 months. it´s clearly organised by some time of crime syndicate.
It is not the same scam for Toronto Zoo. But a website called Eventbrite is selling tickets for kids' parties. zhttps://www.facebook.com/TheTorontoZoo/posts/pfbid0iYJamZwWKKe2F2fWXe4gWQNCFhSBFEFkkf5RtsmN27FHjvZh9V92Y7fCt5vHaZCFl Also another zoo is Brookfield Zoo Chicago. It is the same scam. 6,95$ for 4 tickets for the 90 anniversary. It looks like this scam is attacking all zoo in the world. Brookfield Zoo Chicago warns against ticketing scam - Riverside Brookfield Landmark
