Toby Carvery is sending free “Carvery for two” offers to those who share and comment on a Facebook post.
This is not a genuine offer. Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the Toby Carvery restaurant chain, said it was aware of fake social media posts being created in its name.
A Facebook page is sharing fake offers of free meals for two at Toby Carvery to those who share and comment on its posts.
One of the posts, shared on 30 January by the page, named “Toby Carvery UK”, says: “Great news everyone, I’m Darren Frost. I am very pleased to announce my new role as CEO @ Toby Carvery. To start off my new job I’d like to do a good deed as I know times have been tough recently. I’ll be rewarding everyone who $hares & ¢omments within the next 24 hours with a 𝐹𝑅𝐸𝐸 Carvery for two and drinks included.”
The post includes an image of a man holding a Toby Carvery menu, which appears to have been taken from a news article published in 2016 about the manager of a local Toby Carvery in Thorpe Bay, Essex. The manager, who is named Darren Frost, reportedly won the company’s “General Manager of the Year” award as part of Toby Carvery’s first annual “Toby’s got talent” competition.
Toby Carvery is owned by Mitchells & Butlers, whose CEO is named Phil Urban.
Another, since deleted post, shared on 21 January by the page says: “Here at Toby Carvery we wanted to show you all we care by doing something special to start off 2023 as we know times have been tough for a lot of people so we will be sending everyone who $hares & ¢omments in the next 24 hours a 𝐹𝑅𝐸𝐸 Carvery for two which can be used at any Toby Carvery.”
A spokesperson for Mitchells & Butlers told us: “Unfortunately, every so often we see an upsurge in fake social media pages being created with the core aim of collecting contact and payment details from people.
“Where possible, we take steps to report such pages however sometimes they stay active for longer than they should so please be cautious.
“If you encounter these pages, please do not engage and report the page as soon as you can.”
There are some clues that the page which shared the offer is not the genuine Toby Carvery one. For example, it has 4,400 followers on Facebook, while the official Toby Carvery page has almost 474,000. The official page is also verified with a blue tick next to its name, to show it is genuine, which the ‘Toby Carvery UK’ page does not have.
We’ve written previously about Facebook pages falsely advertising offers and giveaways from brands like Toby Carvery, Wetherspoons and Greggs as part of our work fact checking online misinformation.
Image courtesy of Colin Smith
Update 1 February 2023
We’ve updated this piece with details about another fake offer shared by the same Facebook account.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this is not a genuine offer and Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the Toby Carvery restaurant chain, said it was aware of fake social media posts being created in its name.
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