Scammers are targeting Highland rail passengers with fake unlimited travel deals, ScotRail has warned.
Facebook has been awash with the scams in recent weeks, despite ScotRail and rail passengers repeatedly reporting them to Facebook and its parent company Meta.
The fake offers claim to be selling a limited number of Smartcards for just £2 that will supposedly provide unlimited travel on Scotland’s railway for an entire year.
The extremely low price of £2 for an entire year’s unlimited travel and the use of AI-generated imagery in some of the scam posts are tell-tale signs of the scam.
But not only are they popping up in people’s general news feeds, they are also appearing in their notification bell button under “sponsored” content, with the name “ScotRail” claiming to be the post’s origin.
This means some of the scammers have been buying paid-for advertising and Facebook’s checks haven’t been picking them up – sparking concerns that people could get caught out.
Warning passengers to be on their guard, David Ross, ScotRail communications director, said: “We are aware of a social media-based scam from an account imitating ScotRail and would urge customers to be vigilant when engaging across all social media platforms.
“Fake accounts will typically have very low numbers of followers when compared to official ScotRail accounts, and if anyone has any doubts about authenticity, they should contact us via direct messages to chat with a social media officer.”
ScotRail has been highlighting the scams to its passengers, but despite repeatedly reporting them to Facebook, the bogus offers are continuing to circulate.
The Friends of the Far North Line rail campaign group has also been posting warnings about the scam on its social channels.
It said: “If you see this on Facebook from ‘ScotRail’ it is a phishing exploit – do not sign up!”
Meanwhile, one angry passenger, who received push notifications advertising the scam as recently as Sunday, said: “It’s pretty shocking that these scams are able to persist on Facebook despite ScotRail and others reporting them to Facebook for weeks.
“I think Facebook is having a laugh. It has obviously been made aware of these scams, and yet little seems to have been done to stop them.
“Thankfully I was aware it was a scam, deleted it and reported it. But what I find particularly irritating is that a company the size of Facebook doesn’t have the checks in place to prevent the scam resurfacing again and again.
“ScotRail has already said that only they would ever offer deals, so how come Facebook doesn’t have simple text recognition checks in place that automatically block any other third-party account, or fraudster, from buying advertising that claims to offer such deals?
“It feels to me like Facebook care only for the money, and don’t care if it’s fraudsters paying them, or that their users are the ones being ripped off.
“We already have to wade through a sea of AI-generated slop in our newsfeeds just to see posts from our friends – and this feels like the final straw for my use of the site.”
That sentiment was shared by some of those who responded to the Friends of the Far North Line’s recent warning about the scam.
Louise Primrose said: “I’ve reported [the scammers] too, but others who did so got nowhere. Facebook will not uphold any reports or complaints from paid advertisers. They want the advertising revenue and don’t care about people getting scammed willy-nilly”
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, was approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.