Thousands of netizens are interacting with eight Facebook (FB) posts claiming that Sen. Raffy Tulfo will give away P10,000 for house repairs through Palawan Pawnshop or e-wallet app GCash.
This is a scam. Tulfo did not post any such giveaway on his official Facebook pages (here and here) or Instagram account.
The bogus posts, published from July 15 to 28, asked people to send a private message to become one of 58 winners of P10,000. Carrying a graphic with a photo of Tulfo, the posts further read:
“Sino ang walang pang pa ayus sa bahay jan mag message kayu sa akin dahil papadalhan ko kayo ng 10k GCASH OR PALAWAN bukas na bukas.”
(Who doesn’t have money for house repairs? Send me a message because I will send you P10,000 via GCash or Palawan [Pawnshop] tomorrow.)
“The Senator or his office and program is not giving away any monetary giveaway from Facebook posts,” Paula Tolentino, director III at the senator’s office, told VERA Files Fact Check on Aug. 17 via email.
All eight FB groups that carried the bogus posts also carried other scams such as cash giveaways, job offers, low interest loans, payout from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and many others.
On May 27, Tulfo’s official FB page Raffy Tulfo in Action warned netizens against fake accounts that use the senator’s name and old videos to scam other people.
Several netizens who believed the posts asked how they could join the bogus raffle. The authors behind the sham posts instruct netizens to send them a private message for more information.
The scam posts, which appeared around the time Typhoon Egay caused extensive damage in the Philippines, got a total of over 8,989 interactions.
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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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