Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Jan. 21, 2025. It was updated on Jan. 24, 2025 to include scams with a similar modus operandi, this time using the name of celebrity Rayver Cruz.
At least three Facebook (FB) pages posted bogus ads that used the name and image of actor Aga Muhlach to bait people into investing in a get-rich-quick scam.
The ads used images that made it look like Muhlach had been arrested and deported. The graphic carried this caption:
“NEW LAW FOR CITIZENS IN THE PHILIPPINES | IF YOU ARE OVER 30 YEARS OLD | THEN READ THIS!”
Note: Click the photos to reveal their original source.
Clicking on these ads redirected users to a now-inaccessible website (radialstreams.com) imitating online news site INQUIRER.NET
“BEWARE: INQUIRER.net warns the public of articles and social media posts that use misleading URLs, posing as INQUIRER.net to spread fake news,” the online news site warned in a Jan. 14 advisory.
According to INQUIRER.NET’s advisory, the bogus website article supposedly shows a deleted interview of Muhlach, where he accidentally revealed his additional source of income to talk show host Korina Sanchez.
One netizen shared a version of the bogus advertisement using the Manila Times’ website nameplate and asked: “Totoo kaya to o Fake news na nman to (Is this true, or is this fake news again)?”
Another netizen who shared a copy of the fake ad used the Philippine News Agency’s website nameplate and said in Bisaya: “Murag ayus ning kay Aga ay cryptocurrency (Looks like Aga [Muhlach] is okay with cryptocurrency.”
VERA Files Fact Check has observed the same modus in another bogus ad that used Sen. Raffy Tulfo’s name to bait people into investing in a fake trading platform called Quantum Ai.
FACT CHECK: BOGUS ad using Raffy Tulfo reappears on FB
Another impostor website imitating INQUIRER.net (urbanndwear.world) claimed that actress Kathryn Bernardo told television host Boy Abunda about an investment platform called GPI iFex AI or BitcoinMoneyUP.
VERA Files Fact Check found at least 31 fake ads that used Bernardo’s name to promote the scam. But these ads, published by the now-deleted FB page Fault perfectly 74, had all been taken down as of Jan. 15.
The fake Muhlach ads, posted by FB pages Event Philippines Here (created last Jan. 11), News Philippines Year (Jan. 10), and News Notification (Oct. 29, 2024), garnered more than 375 interactions, 10 comments, and 19 shares.
These posts appeared four days after Muhlach shared his struggles with depression and binge eating during an interview as part of a tuna brand endorsement.
As of Jan. 22, VERA Files Fact Check found 14 more ads that applied a similar modus; this time claiming that celebrity Rayver Cruz was involved in “a broadcast that ended in a tragedy.” INQUIRER.NET posted another warning against such impostor sites.
“Ano na namang fake news ito mga pauso ng tao hahahaha! Iba na talaga mundo ngayon (What is this fake news, how people invent things, hahaha! The world is really different now),” Cruz said in a Jan. 17 Facebook post.
