At least five Facebook (FB) pages pretending to be official social media accounts of Sen. Manny Pacquiao are fooling netizens into joining a fake online raffle giving away houses, cars, phones and lots of cash.
From March 5 to 28, FB pages Fadegved, Manny Pacman Nt, Manny Pacman axo, Manny Pacquiao Nurpitasarah and Manny Pacquiao Supporters — all featuring images of the senator-athlete as their profile pictures — published similar FB status updates that made it appear Pacquiao, speaking in the first person, was explaining the mechanics of his “giveaway.”
The counterfeit accounts claimed he is looking for “1,000 winners in the next 24 hours” who can choose as prize any item from this list: 1,000 or 10,000 dollars, a house, “golden coins,” an iPhone 11 Pro, cars, apartments, business capital, and tuition payments.
To join, participants were asked to share the post to 10 other FB groups.
The contests, which have received an accumulated 62,000 shares, are fake.
Browsing through the three official FB pages of Pacquiao — Manny Pacquiao, Manny Pacquiao Foundation and Senator Manny Pacquiao — shows the senator has not hosted any online giveaway recently. There is no news from legitimate media organizations about him announcing any raffle.
His foundation’s page also published an advisory on March 21 warning the public of scams and fraud. It said: “We have been receiving messages from people claiming that they won a certain amount from our foundation. The Manny Pacquiao Foundation is currently not running any contests, raffles or sms promos.”
The last known raffle by the boxer was on his 41st birthday last December, where he gave away some items to his “supporters,” as reported by Rappler.
Additionally, some of the fake FB pages instructed participants to register for the raffle via a link in the comments section. The website, registeraquimanpac.rf.gd, welcomes visitors with a banner saying they have won “a $5.000 Cash Giveaway” — as opposed to the “1.000 dollars” written in the FB post. A button for “claiming” the money however leads to a movie streaming website.
The poser FB pages also accompanied the “mechanics” with photos and videos originally published by either Pacquiao or his wife Jinkee to add a sense of authenticity to their fake giveaway posts. These include:
- a March 17 photo of Pacquiao from the Philippine National Police Public Information Office of him turning over face masks donated by his friend, Alibaba founder Jack Ma;
- a March 2019 photo of the Pacquiao couple inside an Emirates airplane originally published by Jinkee in her Instagram account;
- a December 2018 image of Pacquiao and his wife dressed up for his 40th birthday celebration posted on his official FB page;
- a selfie of the couple published by Pacquiao on his official FB page in May 2015 for their wedding anniversary; and
- a video of Pacquiao inviting netizens to watch his basketball game in Dubai, uploaded in September 2019 on his FB page.
All five posts continue to make the rounds on social media.
Fadegved was created on June 3, 2019, Manny Pacman Nt on Oct. 7, 2019, Manny Pacman axo on Sept. 8, 2019, Manny Pacquiao Nurpitasarah on May 8, 2018, and Manny Pacquiao Supporters on March 23.
VERA Files has already flagged two fake FB giveaways which both made use of Pacquiao’s name for legitimacy. (See: VERA FILES FACT CHECK: ‘Pacquiao’ FB page promotes FAKE raffle and VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Imposter ‘Pacquiao’ FB accounts post FAKE US500M giveaway)
(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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