Eight impostor Facebook (FB) pages of retail business corporation EMCOR are claiming to give away washing machine units to netizens who interact with their posts. These are fake.
“Scam po iyan… Wala po kaming giveaway sa ngayon (That is a scam… we don’t have a giveaway as of now),” an EMCOR customer service representative, who refused to be named citing company policy, told VERA Files Fact Check on Sept. 19 via a phone call.
“We have received reports of a fraudulent page posing as EMCOR attempting to deceive the public through phishing. This scam involves tricking individuals into providing personal information by pretending to be a legitimate entity,” EMCOR’s official FB page said in a comment.
EMCOR has an official FB page, as well as dedicated regional FB accounts, the customer service representative explained.
The scam posts in question carried the following text:
“Ipinagmamalaki naming ipahayag na magdodonate kami ng 660 washing machine na hindi maibenta dahil gasgas at bahagyang nasira, lahat ng washing machine ay nasa maayos na kondisyon at random na ipapadala namin ito sa mga nagsusulat ng ‘panalo ako’ bago ang Setyembre 30, 2024.”
(We’re proud to announce that we’ll be donating 660 washing machines that we could not sell because of scratches and partial damage, all our washing machines are in good condition and we will send these randomly to those who will write ‘I won’ before Sept. 30, 2024.)
Some of the scam posts asked people to like and follow the impostor pages, while others asked the public to share the post to their FB groups. They were also instructed to send the page a private message for a chance to win the washing machine.
These mechanics are often used in scams that have been flagged by VERA Files Fact Check.
“Kung may winner talaga [sa giveaway ng] EMCOR ay ipo-post namin sa social media, nandiyan ang pangalan. Hindi namin ise-send via private message (If someone wins a giveaway from EMCOR, we will post their names on social media. We will not notify them through a private message), EMCOR’s customer service representative explained.
The company’s official FB page has previously announced the winners of its official giveaway events publicly (see here and here).
The fake posts, which collectively got 8,162 reactions, 23,207 comments, and 20,692 shares, appeared two days after the corporation announced a product giveaway.
