Thousands of people have shared a Facebook post claiming to be offering eight free passes to Alton Towers theme park.
But Alton Towers has confirmed that the offer is not genuine and the account that posted it is not associated with them.
The post, which has received more than 8,000 comments and almost 7,000 shares in the 24 hours since it was posted, says: “We have a super exciting announcement for all you thrill seekers. Times have been tough lately so to welcome you all back to Alton Towers this summer we have decided to reward everybody who has $hared&¢ommented in the next 48 hours from now with a complimentary coupon sheet with 8 passes!”
The post was published by a page called Alton Towers Fans, which was created on 17 April 2023.
A spokesperson for Alton Towers told Full Fact: “This Facebook account is not associated with us and the offer is not something that we have collaborated with them on.
“We have reported the page to Facebook and we’re working to get this removed.”
Full Fact has written about fake offers and promotions many times before. This includes free holidays at Center Parcs, free meals at restaurant chain Toby Carvery and Harvester and fake motorhome giveaways, among others.
It is always worth checking posts that claim to be offering deals that seem too good to be true. One way to be sure is by looking to see whether the offer has been shared by the official company’s page—this will often have more followers, a verified blue tick and a longer post history.
Image courtesy of Andrew Abbott