Picture: Instagram.
Thousands of Instagram users followed a Chicken Licken account after they were tempted with offers of R300 vouchers at the chicken chain.
The fake account claimed it would give away these vouchers to 8 000 people, and that to enter you had to follow the Instagram account, share a screenshot and tag the account.
However, the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” comes to mind, as no one will be getting their vouchers since the account has been exposed as fake.
The fake Chicken Licken Instagram account. Picture: Instagram.
Amber Mackeurtan, a director of Joe Public, Chicken Licken’s advertising agency, which also manages their accounts on social media, told Business Insider they had been trying to close the fake account for months.
“We currently have a team working on it,” she said.
According to Mackheurtan, the hugely popular local chicken chain has been getting calls from customers wanting to find out about the offer of free chicken, only to be disappointed on finding out no such offer actually exists.
The only two official accounts are on Facebook and Twitter, neither of which has offered their followers any free chicken lately.
Instagram users would be well advised to be sceptical about offers from brands that are not verified on social media.
In 2016, travellers hoping for a free flight from low-cost airline Mango fell for a similar hoax after a fake Instagram account offered its first 5 000 followers two tickets to any destination in the country.
Thousands of South Africans were caught out by the fake offer.
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