MOUNTVILLE, Pa. — A Lancaster County volunteer fire company announced that it was victimized by two false Facebook pages designed to mimic its own page over the weekend.
The fake pages were created Sunday night, according to a post on the actual Mountville Fire Company No. 1 Facebook page.
The real fire company posted a contest announcement at about 7 p.m. Sunday, offering a free pair of Ride All Night wristbands to a randomly selected winner from the post's commenters.
The fake pages, which were created around midnight Sunday, joined the comment stream to tell others they had won the contest, and that they had to click a link to pay to enter before a deadline expired, Mountville Fire Company No. 1 said in its announcement.
"We will never charge anyone to enter a free contest," the actual fire company said. "Please do not click any links. If you are ever unsure if it's us or not, send our main page a message or check the poster's profile."
The fake accounts were listed as real estate businesses and had no likes or follows, the fire company said. Both pages were reported to Facebook and banned.
"We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused," the fire company said. "Scammers are everywhere, and this is exactly why many groups have stopped doing fun things like this."
