Are all the Freshers’ pages floating around Facebook legit? Hannah Price investigates.
Over the last few months, weird and wacky events have dominated Facebook. From University town Colour Runs to Total Wipeout style obstacle courses. Vast numbers of students showed their interest by clicking 'attending', which has likely made them a regular feature on newsfeeds.
However, the events run by University Tour UK seem to have two things in common. They will ask for details including full name, date of birth, email, phone number and university. Then the prospect of these exciting activities often results in nothing more than a change in event name, with unsuspecting students 'attending' and promoting their ‘Bristol Freshers 2015 || Welcome to Bristol!’ event.
This has seemingly become a trend in what appear to be ‘fake’ events are being created, whereby the allure of unique and fun-filled activities is used to attract as many students as possible to click ‘attending’ and then hand over their personal data.
The Bristol Wipeout University tour had 3,500 people attending and is likely to have reached a far greater number.
This has been reported in Bristol and a number of university towns across the UK, with one Cambridge student print-screening the moment in which the real identity of the event was revealed.
The pattern which seems to be clear is a thrilling but somewhat unrealistic event, given with very little notice, even when requiring large amounts of planning, which urge you to fill in an online form to show your interest and linking to a Facebook 'like' pages which initially consists of no likes.
Both the fake Colour Run and Wipeout event can be traced back to University Tour UK, which currently has 7,420 Facebook likes.Epigram has contacted the company for a comment regarding these allegations but has had no response.
Tom Phipps, University of Bristol Students' Union (Bristol SU) Living Officer, voiced his concern:
'This is clearly worrying as external unaccountable companies are posing as official Welcome Week providers and misleading students.
'This year Welcome Week will be provided in collaboration between Bristol SU and JCR committees across our halls of residences. Information for these will be released over the summer and I'd urge current and prospective students to wait for this before purchasing wristbands or tickets.'
Bristol SU has urged those wishing information about official Bristol Freshers' events see Bristol SU's official Facebook event. It is currently the only Bristol Freshers' 2015 event in existence which the SU has organised.
The Freshers 2015 event pages that many have allegedly been ‘tricked’ into attending also promoted the widely spread Open Air Cinemas; which took a similar format and requested personal details to register one’s interest. However, The Open Air Cinema has denied any affiliation with University Tour UK.
Students are urged to be cautious when submitting their details through Facebook events. As exciting as some of them may sound, the risk of being scammed into divulging personal details has been highlighted by a number of sources.
However, look out for the Make Sunday Special events in Bristol this summer. Last year saw a water slide down Park Street as well as a pop up park.
Featured Image: Tim Bennett / Unsplash.com
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