A Facebook (FB) page posing as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) uploaded posts claiming the agency is giving away “P5,000” ayuda (cash assistance) to those who have registered their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards. This is fake.
DSWD is not offering cash assistance to those who registered under the SIM Registration Act and the law does not mandate the agency to do so.
On May 4, the bogus FB page uploaded two identical posts with this caption:
“ATTENTION. Tinatawagan ang lahat ng mga naka REGISTER na ng SIM CARD, kunin nyo na ang 5k Ayuda MAG FILL UP SA LINK PARA MAIPADALA NA (Calling everyone who already REGISTERED their SIM CARD, get your 5k Cash assistance FILL OUT IN THE LINK FOR IT TO BE DELIVERED).”
A link to a blog site with the domain name libreng-ayuda-2022.blogspot.com was also in the caption. The blog contains information about registration and requirements for the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Advertisements also show up on the site.
The FB posts also bore a graphic with the DSWD’s logo and text with the same false claim. It further instructs netizens to message the page for them to avail of the cash assistance.
At the bottom of the graphic are QR codes supposedly of the official SIM registration sites, but these direct to another blog with the same domain name. The QR codes from GCash’s 2022 infographic were altered. The links written on the blog further lead netizens to e-commerce sites and dubious online gaming and trading websites.
FB page DSWD 4ps Update (created on July 27, 2022), which previously circulated a fake DSWD announcement debunked by VERA Files FACT CHECK, posted the fraudulent graphic. (Read Faux ‘DSWD’ page fools netizens with FAKE scholarship announcement)
In a March 23 post, the DSWD again warned netizens against “cash assistance” posts that do not come from their official social media accounts and website.
Similar posts promising cash assistance to registered SIM users have been debunked in 2022 and early 2023 by ABS-CBN News and VERA Files Fact Check. (Read FB posts offering ‘assistance’ with SIM registration are SCAMS)
The fake posts resurfaced more than a week after Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy announced that the deadline for SIM card registration has been moved to July 25.
The posts by the FB page DSWD 4ps Update (created on July 27, 2022) garnered 2,361 interactions, according to the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. Several FB groups also shared the post.
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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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