A Facebook (FB) page purporting to be an official social media channel of Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao is duping netizens into joining a raffle. It’s a hoax.
A day after Pacquiao won his July 21 boxing match against American Keith Thurman, imposter page Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao announced that the senator will raffle off financial and livelihood assistance to 10 people.
The page, created six days before the post was published July 22, then laid out instructions on how to join the raffle, requiring netizens to “like” the FB page, share the post, and comment “Congrats.” The “winners” are supposed to be announced on Aug. 21.
Pacquiao’s official Facebook page is Manny Pacquiao, which has not announced any such contest. The fake post also used a photo of the senator in New York from a May 21 Instagram post.
The last contest hosted on the senator’s official Facebook page was in May, where he raffled off a pair of his boxing gloves to people who shared his page and followed the Instagram account of his nonprofit Pacquiao Foundation.
The post carrying the hoax could have reached over 4.4 million people, receiving over 17,000 reactions, more than 18,000 comments and over 40,000 shares.
The Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao page was created on July 16, 2019.
