Ten posts and ads from impostor pages on Facebook (FB) promoted a milk supplement that could allegedly “clean one’s blood vessels” and get rid of hypertension (high blood pressure). These are all scams.
An FB user tipped VERA Files about the posts via our Misinformation Tip Line on FB Messenger.
The impostors imitated broadcaster Arnold Clavio, the Philippine General Hospital and the Department of Health (DOH). Four of the posts – published five days after New Year’s Day – falsely claimed that former Health secretary Enrique “Eric” Tayag endorsed the milk supplement called Cholextrol which could allegedly make hypertension “disappear”.
Earlier versions of the fake ad, published Dec. 11, 15 and 27, falsely claimed that Clavio, actress Ruffa Gutierrez and veteran actor Eddie Gutierrez promoted Cholextrol.
None of these personalities and institutions have endorsed the product. In fact, several of them have issued advisories against the scams.
“This is fake news! I didn’t suffer from a brain aneurysm. Please don’t subscribe or buy any kind of milk or supplement from this account. This is a scam,” Clavio warned in an Instagram post on Dec. 29.
“The DOH clarifies that this Facebook page is fake and is not affiliated with Dr. Tayag, nor endorsed by the UP-PGH and the Department,” the health department warned last October.
Cholextrol is neither approved as medicine for hypertension nor registered as a food product under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Clicking the images or the web links within the fake ads on FB redirected users to bogus websites (fda-approve.net, healthylifeph.net, publichealths.net) where people could supposedly buy two cans of the product and get one free.
The fraudulent websites used the name and logo of the DOH and the Philippine Heart Center, and claimed that Cholextrol can treat hypertension, fatty blood and cardiovascular disease. Their headlines read:
“Dr Eric Tayag: ‘After cleaning blood vessels, hypertension disappeared along with 9 other incurable diseases.'”
A product claiming to cure a wide range of diseases might be a scam, the U.S. FDA warned.
Among the posts that garnered the most interactions were from FB pages Arnold Clavio (created on Dec. 30, 2024) and Jaisel Bombon Blanquisco (created on June 29, 2024), garnering 23,552 likes, 3,589 comments, and 3,227 shares collectively.
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