Fake Facebook page warning as pretend steam railway account tries to lure families
A volunteer-led tourist attraction is warning of the dangers of fake Facebook pages that are being continually set up in its name.
Telford Steam Railway, which runs the hugely popular Polar Express at Christmas, says it is doing what it can to report problems but bosses want people to be alert.
The fake pages have been trying to scam people by tagging them and pretending that they have won a competition to win tickets to both Shrewsbury Food Festival and The Polar Express train ride.
"We have already contacted the winners of the competition, so we do not want people to fall for this," said Ben Hopkinson, the railway''s volunteer events manager.
"We do not know who it is who has been doing this but as soon as we see one popping up we delete, block and report. But as soon as we deal with one, another one appears. We are doing our best as a volunteer organisation to keep on top of it."
The fake accounts have been using the same profile and name and as the Telford Steam Railway.
But Mr Hopkinson said a giveaway is the 29,000 followers that the genuine page has.
It also runs the The Polar Express Train Ride Telford Facebook page which has 1,300 followers.
Mr Hopkinson said there have not been signs yet that the Polar Express page has been cloned but members of the public should be aware not to fall for any tricks.
"They will have dodgy links, so people should be aware to check the validity of the pages," said Mr Hopkinson.
"We do not want people to fall for this, it is not fair," he said. "We are doing our best to sort it out but it is difficult to keep on top of it as a group of volunteers. We do have people who are keeping an eye on this as best we can.
"People just need to be aware, our main concern is to keep people safe."
