A fake graphic posted on several Facebook (FB) groups claiming President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will provide cash assistance to anyone who gives personal details in the comments section is a fraudulent scheme.
On June 21, a fabricated graphic carried a superimposed text attributed to Marcos that read: “SA LAHAT NG MGA NAKA ONLINE NGAYUN (sic) AY SWERTRE (sic) PO KAYU (sic) DAHIL MAGBIBIGAY AKO SA BAWAT TAO NA NAKA ONLINE AT MAKA MASSAGE (sic) SA AKINN (sic) (To all who are currently online, you’re lucky because I will be giving [money] to all who are online and will be messaging me).”
All the posts bore the same caption asking netizens to put their real name, contact information, and home address under the comment section.
The captions also mentioned that outgoing Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao is planning to give a “Christmas gift,” which is already a red flag with Christmas still several months away.
Marcos has made no such statement. Neither is there an official report that mentions any plan to offer cash assistance to anyone who shares their personal information.
The image of Marcos with arms crossed, taken from a political online poster during his run for the presidency, appeared as early as August last year.
The scam appeared a day after Marcos said he will temporarily handle the agriculture portfolio when his term officially begins on June 30. He will chair the post until the Department of Agriculture finishes reorganizing to face the “severe” agricultural problems of the country.
At least 140 FB pages published the fake graphic, garnering more than 24,600 interactions, according to the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. The top traffic generators are FB groups Tutok To Win Live (Wowowin) (created on May 26, 2021), TUTOK FOR WIN (Feb. 26, 2021), and totok to win official (June 29, 2020).
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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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