I've read most but not all of the posts in this thread. Clearly, the majority of FT'ers have little sympathy for this lady.
As others have pointed out, "employee pricing" is fairly common in the automotive industry. I know someone who works at a car manufacturer and if I wanted employee pricing, I know something could be arranged pretty easily. Similarly, I have a friend who once worked at a well-known consumer electronics company and annually she was able to purchase up to one of every product for at least 10% off MSRP and up to 25% off depending on the exact product. The terms & conditions prevented resale on eBay and similar (products were tracked by serial #) but buying on behalf of your friends & family was OK. For cruises, is it really uncommon to see fares decrease on some routes the closer one gets to sailing date? And even in the airline industry, immediate family including kids up to age xx (25?) are able to avail of "employee pricing".
So to someone who otherwise knows nothing of air travel, an ad on [insert website of choice] promising cheap airfares is not entirely unreasonable. Fake news is out there and some people actually believe it. Why would a super cheap airfare be any different?