Several Facebook (FB) accounts have been deceiving thousands of netizens into joining bogus online giveaways, including P10,000 daily cash prizes, using the name of supermarket chain Puregold.
These are misleading and fake.
The official FB page of Puregold Price Club Inc. has issued an advisory on July 9 telling the public to ignore such posts, warning them of phishing schemes that ask for their name, contact details and home addresses.
Puregold also reminded its followers to read posts only from its verified account, which features a verification badge next to its name.
The scam raffles, published on July 5 and 6, carried identical mechanics: they will pick 10 winners among the netizens who shared its post to other FB groups, and comment “ME” on the post for 50 times. The fake posts also included names of five people who allegedly won previous rounds.
Other posts included extra instructions, such as adding the raffle publisher’s FB profile, or following his or her Instagram and TikTok accounts, to join the giveaway.
Among the posts of this nature that has gained the most traction was published by FB page Puregold Club, an account created only on July 5. This has been shared over 131,000 times and has received nearly a million comments. It has published two other similar giveaways that also used the name of Puregold and a noontime variety show.
The version posted by the netizen who plugged the raffle mechanics in his social media accounts was shared by over 1,200 people and has over 10,000 comments. A post by an account using the name of a gameshow host, on the other hand, has more than 5,200 comments and 3,500 shares.
Among the fake posts’ top traffic generators are FB groups Francis Leo Marcos Change Movement, TUTOK TO WIN SA – WOWOWIN GMA TV LIVE SHOW, and DSWD Social Amelioration Program 2nd Tranche {IMPLEMENTATIONS & ANOMALY}.
This is not the first time publishers of fake giveaways have duped netizens on FB. (SEE: VERA FILES FACT CHECK: FAKE Pacquiao, Revillame giveaways bait netizens again; VERA FILES FACT CHECK: HP is NOT giving away ‘5,000 laptops’)
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
