New twist in social media
Vying for social media attention is tough enough without the weird difficulty that’s being hoisted on restaurants in Houston. An anonymous scalawag has decided to create dozens of Facebook pages for dining choices that exist solely in the scamp’s imagination.
To draw “likes,” the culprit is using images swiped from the pages of actual restaurants. The addresses given for the fake places are the locations of real establishments, raising the possibility that customers will show up with expectations of finding a completely different dining choice.
The cooked-up joints bear names that a real restaurant might: Rocko’s Tacos, and Koharu Ramen Bar. And the descriptions are realistic rather than fantastic, helping the pages to snare considerable “likes.”
Local restaurants reportedly are pushing Facebook to take down the bogus pages, or at least yank out the swiped artwork. To date, about 60 of the pages are in operation.