A Facebook (FB) group posing as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) created two posts falsely interpreted by typhoon victims as a legitimate raffle for government aid.
The impostor FB group DSWD Ayuda Update created two posts on Oct. 29, that urged people to send a message to another bogus FB group named Attendance. The post in part read:
“SA MGA NAAPEKTUHAN NG BAGYONG PAENG. MAG MESSAGE LANG KAYO DITO ? Attendance (To those affected by Typhoon Paeng, send a message here). “
VERA Files Fact Check previously debunked DSWD Ayuda Update as an impostor group that made fake announcements about the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
“Any accounts, except for [these official pages], are not, in any way, connected with the DSWD. We enjoin the public to follow our official social media accounts and website for announcements about our programs and services,” the DSWD told VERA Files Fact Check in an earlier email.
To reassure the public of its legitimacy, DSWD Ayuda Update (created on Aug. 22) mimicked the official DSWD page’s previous warnings about scam texts or messages.
Netizens who thought the posts to be true gave their phone number in the comments section, while a few victims of Typhoon Paeng (international name: Nalgae) said they were desperate to join the raffle and receive aid. Others have asked fellow netizens to be careful of scams.
The fake posts, which garnered more than 12,630 interactions, appeared after Typhoon Paeng made multiple landfalls on Oct. 29.
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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.)
