Several posts on Facebook (FB) are claiming that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is offering monthly allowances for students in all educational levels if they fill up a form online. These are fake.
The bogus posts were published on Sept. 18 and 19, and continued to be shared this week. One read:
“TINATAWAGAN LAHAT NANG NAG AARAL KAYO AY MAKAKATANGGAP NG MAG MAG MONTHLY ALLOWANCE MULA SA CHED. MAG PALISTA KAYO DITO FILL APAN ANG FORM NA NASA LINK (Calling all students, all of you can receive a monthly allowance from CHED. Just sign up. Fill-up the form on this link)
WALANG REQUIREMENTS KUNDI MAG PALISTA LANG KAYO ANG CHED NA ANG MAG AAYOS NG SCHOLARSHIP NYO (No requirements needed, just fill-up the form and CHED will process your scholarship)”
The posts stated that students can receive between P7,000 and P10,000 per month depending on their educational level, covering elementary to college.
These are scams that phish for personal information of unsuspecting netizens.
The Unified Student Financial Assistance for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), an attached agency of CHED that is responsible for all government-funded student financial assistance programs at the college and university level, told VERA Files Fact Check in a Sept. 24 email that such posts online are fake.
“Please be informed that the private Facebook Group Page ‘DSWD Payout (4PS, MCCT, RCCT, UCT & TCT)’ is neither an official page nor affiliated in any way with the CHED or UniFAST. The posts claiming that CHED offers monthly allowances to students of all education levels are fake. Additionally, CHED programs specifically cater to at least incoming college freshmen.”
Source: Personal correspondence (email), UniFAST, Sept. 24, 2024
UniFAST further cautioned the public to be wary of social media pages that “post fake news and share links leading to clickbait scam ads designed to steal personal information.”
The fraudulent posts continue to circulate after UniFAST distributed tertiary education subsidy grants in Pampanga on Sept. 23.
The admin page of FB group DSWD Payout (4PS, MCCT, RCCT, UCT & TCT) (created on May 25, 2023), which currently has over 486,300 users, published the scam four times and collectively garnered 495 likes, 420 comments and 80 shares.
