Fake Instagram account posing as Cork carpet retailer posts racist messages 

Cork businessman speaks out against fake Instagram page posing as his own business

A fake Instagram page has been set up to attack a Cork business by publishing racist content and other posts attacking the carpet company.

Ben Warrilow, who owns a chain of Factory Carpet Superstores across Cork, has slammed a scam social media page posing as his own business publishing racist content.

An Instagram page posting as his business came to Mr Warrilow's attention last night when his family began to receive follow requests from the fake account.

“The fake page had blocked me from viewing the account however it had sent follow requests to my nieces and nephews, and that’s when I became aware that this page was publishing harmful content pretending to be my business,” Mr Warrilow said.

Ben who is originally from the UK but has been living in Douglas for over 26 years was horrified to learn the kind of posts the page was sharing: “They were posting pictures saying ‘No Irish, no blacks, no dogs’, making it look like it was my company posting them.

“Other posts include pictures saying ‘Irish take a bath ya smelly f*ckers’ and other things claiming we are ‘British gypsies.’” 

Cork businessman warns public of fake Instagram page pretending to be his business. This post was published by the fake account saying "No Irish, no blacks, no dogs."

In terms of who has set up the fake page attacking the Cork businessman, Mr Warrilow has his suspicions about who may be behind it.

“We’ve been in business on the Kinsale road since 1995, it is upsetting to see this behaviour, it hurts to see people publish these kinds of posts aiming to tarnish our business.” 

 Mr Warrilow is urging people to report the fake Instagram account under the name of ‘factory_carpets.superstore’ and wants to make it clear his company only has one Instagram account called ‘factorycarpetscork.’ 

“I’m urging everyone to report the account due to the harmful content they are sharing,” he said.

Mr Warrilow has passed on the information of the fake page to Gardaí. Instagram has not removed the account yet as they claim it does not violate their terms and conditions.