Viral (but fake) Facebook post claims Mitchell's Daylight Donuts is giving out free boxes of doughnuts
Aug. 14—MITCHELL — Did you get a free box of doughnuts from a Mitchell bakery?
Neither did 65,000 people who shared a fake Facebook post.
Mitchell's Daylight Donuts became the latest business to be imitated by social media scammers, after a page created Friday used the business' logos and old photos to offer up free fresh doughnuts to its customers.
"This week to celebrate 70 years of Daily Donoughts (sic) we want to treat everyone with a (free) box of Doughnuts," read the post, which was littered with spelling and grammatical errors. "We're going to be sending each person who has shared&commented by the 15th of August a box 12 of doughnuts. (Sent next day delivery)."
In less than 48 hours, the post quickly amassed nearly 30,000 comments and over 65,000 shares from social media users far and wide looking for a free score of the baked sweets.
Some users, however, were quick to point out some flaws in the scam's design.
"Too bad this isn't actually from Daylight Donuts. 1. No tick mark next to their name. 2. Misspelled doughnuts twice. 3. When doughnuts was spelled correctly they did not use the donuts version DD uses," one Facebook user commented.
"This page was created yesterday. They don't even spell 'donoughts' correctly. You have to know it's a hoax," another said.
And it only took one day for the real Daylight Donuts to respond, confirming the post was a scam.
"We've seen this post floating around and it is a SCAM," the real business said on their Facebook page. "Please do not give anybody your information!"
Daylight Donuts did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
There are a few ways to determine whether a Facebook page posting information or offering up a special deal is authentic or a scam.
Is the page verified by Facebook?
Real Facebook businesses will often have a small check mark next to their name, indicating that the business has confirmed with Facebook that it is, in fact, an authentic page. Not all businesses have the check mark, however, so it's important to look into other aspects of the page.
When was the page created?
Facebook offers transparency information to help users determine whether a page is authentic. By navigating to a page's "about" tab and selecting "page transparency," users can see when a page was created. If it's a brand new page, it's more likely that the page may not be authentic.
How many posts does the page have?
Businesses aim to connect with as many current and potential customers as possible. A page without a history of posting could be a sign that the page isn't authentic.
Is the offer too good to be true?
As much as everyone loves doughnuts, it's unlikely that a local business would deliver a dozen doughnuts, at no cost, to tens of thousands of residents across the state and country. If the offer seems too good to be true, it likely isn't.
Facebook encourages users to report pages that are fake or conducting scams so the platform can review the account and take action to prevent users from falling victim.
