Toby Carvery meal giveaway is not official

A post on Facebook from a page called “Toby Carvery UK” claims: “To start the new year we wanted to do something a little special at Toby Carvery as we know times were tough last year so we're rewarding everyone who $hares & ¢omments in the next 7 days with a 𝐹𝑅𝐸𝐸 Carvery for two with any drinks[sic].”

But this ‘promotion’ is not genuine or affiliated with the restaurant chain. Mitchells & Butlers, the parent company of Toby Carvery, confirmed to Full Fact that the page was not genuine.

The page that shared the post isn’t the genuine Toby Carvery Facebook account, which has a verified badge and over 500,000 likes. This imitation page has only 2,000 likes and was created in June 2022.

We often see posts like this, claiming to be famous brands, offering heavily discounted products, free food or hampers. On closer inspection, these pages aren’t verified, don’t have as many followers as you’d expect, and have often only been created recently. You can check when a Facebook page was created by clicking ‘about’, and then ‘page transparency’.

The posts collect a large number of likes, shares and comments and may go on to ask users to fill in surveys where they ask for personal information.

A spokesperson for Mitchells & Butlers told Full Fact the company was aware of “fake social media pages” and said: “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.”