Multiple Facebook (FB) impostor pages rehashed a three-month-old warning of cardiologist Willie Ong against fake products to fool people into buying an unregistered barley grass supplement.
The posts by FB pages Doc Liza – Health tips Daily, Dr Wiillie&Lizza 0ng – Health Tips, and Dr. WillIe 0ng Lizza provided allegedly “legitimate” links where one can purchase Navitas Barley Grass powder. All four posts carried a caption that read in part:
“Pasensya na sa mga Pinoy na pasyente na bumili ng FAKE Barley Grass Powder sa shopee | ang produkto ay HINDI ipinamamahagi sa pamamagitan ng mga e-commerce platform: Shopee, lazada, … sa totoong link na ito.”
(Apologies to Filipino patients who bought FAKE Barley Grass Powder on Shopee | This product is NOT distributed through e-commerce platforms [like] Shopee, Lazada [but] through this legitimate link.)
Navitas Barley Grass Powder, which claims to prevent diabetes, heart disease and cancer as well as help with weight loss – is not a registered food product under the Food and Drug Administration.
On April 19, Ong warned against fake FB pages using his name and altered photos to sell bogus medicines and supplements.
In a July 22 post by FB page Dr. Willie 0ng Lizza, the screenshots in the original video were replaced by fake product disclaimers for barley grass powder sold on e-commerce sites.
Another post by FB page Doc Liza – Health tips Daily, Dr Wiillie&Lizza 0ng – Health Tips the same day edited an existing VERA Files infographic to make it look like Willie Ong is promoting the fake barley powder.
Three of the four fake posts show a photo of Ong allegedly holding boxes of the supplement as five Japanese men stand behind him. This is fake.
According to reverse image search, the original photo – dated Oct. 26, 2022 – shows the Singaporean corporation Sembcorp Industries signing a memorandum of understanding with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
The bogus links (japanofficialstore.asia, barleyofficial.online, docwillie-onghealthy.click) ask for people’s contact details for them to order the product.
Doc Liza – Health tips Daily, Dr Wiillie&Lizza 0ng – Health Tips, and Dr. WillIe 0ng Lizza’s posts got a total of over 361,374 interactions.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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