KUALA LUMPUR: If you’ve come across an advertisement on Facebook featuring AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes urging you to discover his ‘secret’ to success, stop right there.

Don’t click on it and don’t respond. Chances are, it’s a link to an international scam.

AirAsia, in a statement today, said the sponsored ads on Facebook are linked to articles claiming to quote Fernandes as saying, “They will EAT me alive for this!”,”They’ll take my HEAD, every Malaysian needs to watch this”, “They want my HEAD for revealing this secret”. Facebook ads featuring AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is likely a link to an international scam.

AirAsia said Fernandes has not endorsed these advertisements.

“We urge the public to ignore them and to refrain from sharing the articles in question.

“For those who wish to know more about Tony Fernandes or AirAsia, please refer to our official social media channels or credible news sources for information,” said the airline.

Checks on the ads suggest that they are linked to a binary options trading scam page.

On one of the advertisements’ Facebook page, Malaysian users flooded its comments section, warning would-be page visitors that it is a scam.

One user claimed that his friend was conned out of USD$1,000 (around RM4,100) after registering with the website.

The scammers, it is understood, would contact their victim from an overseas number and urge the victim to make a deposit via credit card.

This supposedly will enable the victim to open their binary trading account and “make money fast.” However, the scammers will eventually retain the deposit, leaving the victims with nothing.

Fernandes is not the only high-profile businessman to have had his image used by the scam artists. These syndicates had also used the image of China’s billionaire Jack Ma to entice their victims.-nst