BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Texas Meat Market is giving back to its customers by doing a giveaway for the Super Bowl through their Instagram account, but a scammer recently created a nearly identical fake account to take advantage of them.
A brand new 55-inch TV makes a great centerpiece for any Super Bowl party. Texas Meat Market Co-owner Laura Mendez says that’s the thinking behind their giveaway to thank their customers and expand their social media following.
“All you have to do is follow our page, like the post, which is the actual giveaway post, and then tag a friend, on Instagram only,” Mendez said.
Easy enough, right? It was until Mendez says a scammer created a nearly identical Instagram account with its own fraudulent giveaway.
“Not even hacked us, just copied our page,” Mendez said. “Everything – from name, pictures, everything on our thing was copied. It was only one single letter that was different.”
The scammer’s account was called @texasmeatsmarket, with an extra letter ‘s.’ The fake giveaway included a link, then asked for personal information and a credit card number for a $1 entry fee.
“It was basically saying that they had won already, that the TV was theirs, and all they had to do was follow a few other steps like signing up and giving money to these people.”
Mendez says they first became aware of the scam over the weekend. She says a few of their Instagram and Facebook followers alerted them about the fake account.
“One of my sister’s…
