Editor’s Note (Oct. 15, 2024): This story was updated with a statement sent by GMA News about its impostors promoting a cryptocurrency scam.
At least three Facebook (FB) ads used bogus websites that imitated GMA News to make it look like financial adviser Chinkee Tan promoted a cryptocurrency platform. These are fake.
Clicking on the bogus FB ads redirected to impostor GMA News articles carrying this headline: “The Central Bank of the Philippines sues Chinkee Tan over statements he made on live television.”
“GMA News Online did not write the said stories. We ask netizens to remain vigilant and avoid clicking or engaging with the post,” Justin Joyas, senior business development manager of GMA News Online, told VERA Files Fact Check in an Oct. 14 email.
“We also have not written any articles about Nearest Edge,” Joyas added.
“Ito po ay hindi totoo at gumagamit pa sila ng iba pang mga personalidad para sila ay paniwalaan. Ingat lang po (These are not true and they also use other personalities to make others believe them. Beware) because this is a phishing site created to scam hardworking people like you,” Tan, also a YouTube influencer, said in an Oct. 5 FB video.
To look more believable, the bogus ads used a screenshot of Tan during an interview with Internet personality Reymond Delos Reyes which premiered on YouTube Nov. 5, 2023. This interview is not about cryptocurrency but about how to achieve financial stability by spending wisely, the value of savings, and effective ways to do it.
The fake video claimed that the cryptocurrency platform earns P2,361 in two hours with an initial investment of P15,000, and generates over P1 million in four months. Tan also allegedly encouraged people to invest while the opportunity is still available.
These signs are similar to the cryptocurrency scam red flags raised by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in Maryland.
Clickbait headlines linking famous personalities to crypto currency are not new. Those falsely insinuating the arrest of Filipino celebrities, fake interviews with talk show personalities like Boy Abunda or Delos Reyes – are red flags of cryptocurrency scams.
Read our other fact check articles to know more.
The false information appeared a week after Tan promoted a paid online webinar to learn more about opening a business venture.
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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.)
