Online scammers claiming to represent a Tranent convenience store have “ruined the fun” of an online giveaway, according to the business owner.

Customers at Ali’s Convenience Store at Muirpark Drive were targeted by online scammers earlier this month after the business launched an online giveaway for a bottle of AU Vodka.

The business, which became Scotland’s 500th Premier Store this year, regularly runs giveaway competitions on Facebook where customers have the opportunity to win free items, including iPads and other expensive or popular products.

Following the store’s latest competition, owners Anila and Zulfiqar Ali received several messages from members of the public who had been contacted by a Facebook page claiming to be the store.

The fake page informed customers that they had ‘won’ the competition and encouraged them to provide bank details to claim their prize.

The shop owners were quick to respond, encouraging people not to follow the link.

Mrs Ali told the Courier: “We were shocked when we saw that someone had pretended to be our store.

“It was a real problem because if people were to be scammed then it reflects badly on us too.

“We would never want to see our customers be stolen from.

“We were getting many phone calls and messages as well as people coming into the store. We had to let them know they had not won and not to follow any links.

“We would never ask for bank details from customers and have asked customers to be wary of messages like that.”

Mrs Ali said that, having spoken with her social media manager, who runs social media pages for several businesses, the fake account was believed to have been taken down by Facebook.

She said: “We quickly contacted our social media person and they told us that in that week they had to put in 118 requests to Facebook to remove scam pages.

“Thankfully, I think the page is now taken down but there is no guarantee one is not started again in the future.

“It is disappointing because it has ruined the fun of our giveaway, which is something that we like to do for the community.”

Winners were eventually found for the competition and the prizes were given out at the store.

Despite this incident, Mrs Ali said that the business would continue to run free giveaway competitions in the future. She added: “Hopefully this is the last time we have this problem but we just ask customers to be careful and never give away bank details.”