A Gloucestershire company's official Facebook page was duplicated by a fake account this weekend, asking for donations to a fraudulent account.

The scam, which posed as local company BiGDUG, targeted supporters of Gloucester Rugby and the 4ED Foundation to make fake online fundraising contributions.

The account posted under the fake and newly created BiGDUG LIVE and targeted users who were commenting on a post to win tickets to attend the 4ED Fundraising Dinner, in partnership with Gloucester Rugby.

The dinner is to raise funds for Ed Slater and his family following his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in July 2022.

Alerted to the incident early this morning (February 27), BiGDUG has released statements on social media to make it absolutely clear that the comments made by BiGDUG LIVE are in no way associated with BiGDUG, 4ED or Gloucester Rugby.

The company has deleted all comments, reported and blocked the fake account (which has 0 followers and 0 posts, but has simulated the BiGDUG page with the official logo and some imagery).

Polly Maclennan, head of PR and campaigns at BiGDUG, said: "We would never ask for credit card details or donations via links on social media. Anyone that has done so should try and cancel the payment immediately. Please do not make any donations via these links, as they are nothing to do with the fundraiser.

"We are really upset that our competition to offer such lovely prizes to support the Ed Slater fundraising campaign has been highjacked in this way.

"We want to thank all those who also got in touch over email to raise the alarm."

The sold-out dinner event is being held on Saturday March 4 at Cheltenham Racecourse to raise funds for the 4ED Campaign.