Toby Carvery is giving away a free meal for two for Facebook, users who like a photo on its page and follow a link will receive a coupon for a carvery meal for two at Toby Carvery restaurants.
This is not a genuine offer. The Facebook page is unaffiliated with the real Toby Carvery, and Mitchells & Butlers—the company which runs it.
A Facebook post is advertising a fake offer from Toby Carvery, claiming that the company is giving away a free carvery meal for two in return for ‘likes’ on an image.
The post, which has been liked more than 10,000 times, features an image of a gift voucher bearing the Toby Carvery name and logo. The caption states: “Receive Carvery for 2 immediately after you've liked this photo.”
But the offer is not genuine. The post directs people to a different website unaffiliated with Toby Carvery where users are prompted to enter personal information, and further redirected to a different website to sign up for paid promotional offers before a ‘£50 Harvester Gift Card’ can be claimed.
There are a number of clues that this isn’t a legitimate Toby Carvery offer. The Facebook page ‘Carvery UK’ posting the supposed deal has 54,000 followers compared to the real Toby Carvery page which has 486,000 followers.
The official page on Facebook also has a blue ‘tick’ showing it is a genuine business, which the Carvery UK page, which was created in May 2021, does not have.
The URLs of the websites the post links to also do not contain any mention of Toby Carvery, and the ‘giftcard’ it promises is for a different named company, the Harvester restaurant chain.
Toby Carvery warns Facebook users on its page of other users or pages posing as the company, warning they “try and take advantage, by pretending to offer competitions, or to be senior executives from Toby Carvery”. It adds it will never ask for bank or credit card details, and says genuine deals will feature on its verified Facebook page.
Mitchells & Butlers, the company which runs Toby Carvery told Full Fact the post was not a real deal currently available, and Carvery UK is a fake profile ‘not related to Toby Carvery in any way’.
A spokesperson said: “We are aware of several fake offers being shared on Facebook and we’re currently working to have it taken down. We encourage guests to always refer back to our official social media and web pages to be sure that deals and offers are genuine.”
The company added it also encourages people to access official offers for the restaurant directly from its website, email newsletter or mobile app to ensure their validity.
The format of the post is similar to other fake offers we have previously fact checked, including fake coupon deals for companies such as Amazon and Greggs, chain restaurants such as Harvester and Wetherspoons, or cheap deals for expensive items such as air fryers from retailers like Argos.
Image courtesy of Danie van de Merwe
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 it is not a real promotion for a free carvery for two at Toby Carvery.
Full Fact fights for good, reliable information in the media, online, and in politics.
Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.
