A Facebook (FB) ad promoting a cryptocurrency trading platform supposedly endorsed by Vice President Sara Duterte is making the rounds online. This is fake. Adding to the deception, the scam imitated the website of Inquirer.net.
A reader sent a request through VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline on March 4 to look into the ad.
The scam ad was published on FB on Feb. 6. It carried a link to an article with a thumbnail showing Duterte and the text:
“A NEW LAW IN THE PHILIPPINES! NO ONE EXPECTED THIS! MORE INFORMATION BELOW. SELECT YOUR AGE TO RECEIVE GOVERNMENT COMPENSATION”
When clicked, the link redirects to “allactionmarketing.net” and leads to a website that looks like Inquirer.net. It featured an article – supposedly written by Inquirer.net reporter Charie Abarca – with the headline:
“By the order of Sara Duterte, Philippines residents will start receiving income from taxes”
“Inquirer.net did not write this,” said Arlene Burgos, Inquirer.net’s chief content officer, in an email to VERA Files Fact Check on March 11.
The scam concocted a fake interview between Duterte and veteran journalist Jessica Soho, who is not even affiliated with the Inquirer Group. In the interview, the vice president supposedly said each Filipino shall receive P200,000 in tax refunds monthly through the financial trading platform “NetherexPro”.
There is no record of Abarca nor by any of Inquirer.net’s reporters authoring such a story. A cursory search reveals the digital news organization has never mentioned “NetherexPro”. Additionally, the supposed trading platform is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In November last year, Soho denied endorsing any kind of cryptocurrency or business investment scheme.
Though the scam ad was originally posted on FB on Feb. 6, it began running as a sponsored post on Feb. 26 and continued to make the rounds this March. The fake Inquirer.net article has been outfitted with a code that reflects the current date (ie. the date you click on the link) as the fake article’s publishing date.
The fake ad was posted by the FB page Element Fusion (created Nov. 19, 2024), which is listed as a footwear store based in Medellin, Colombia. It has since garnered over 12,000 reactions, 2,900 comments and 587 shares.
