Several Facebook (FB) pages imitating private companies have been promising “anniversary giveaways” to netizens. These are scams and the companies have disowned the posts.
As early as Aug. 7, Filipino netizens have been flooded with a barrage of giveaway posts supposedly from FB pages of Motortrade, NCCC Malls and DALI Stores. Netizens are asked to comment on the posts and register on a website to get a chance to receive cash and other items like motorcycles, gift bags, mobile phones, shopping vouchers or food packs.
A Sept. 10 post bearing images of Motortrade stores bore this text:
“LIBRENG MOTORSIKLO (FREE MOTORCYCLE). Hi everyone. Para ipagdiwang ang kaarawan ni @Motortrade, lahat ng magsasabi ng ‘Congratulations’ sa aming page bago mag 12 September 2024 ay makakatanggap ng eksklusibong regalo na 250 libreng motor, at cash (To celebrate the anniversary of Motortrade, everyone who will comment ‘Congratulations’ in our page before September 12, 2024 will receive exclusive gifts namely 250 free motorcycles and cash). Good luck.“
Posts supposedly from the NCCC Malls and DALI grocery stores follow the same format only changing the photos used and portions of the text.
These scams lead netizens to dubious websites and collect their personal information.
On Sept. 3, Motortrade’s official FB page released an advisory calling the circulating posts “fake”. It further reminded netizens to only get information from their official website and social media pages.
NCCC Supermarket’s official FB page also disowned the fake raffle promos that unauthorizedly used their company logos.
“This is to inform the public that this is the only and official NCCC Supermarket Facebook page and is not related to the said circulating account, and that the use of our trademark and logo without consent is in violation of the Republic Act 8293 or Intellectual Property Code,” a portion of their statement read.
Similarly, DALI posted a clarificatory statement regarding scam posts attributed to their company back in August.
These scam posts are not new. VERA Files previously debunked similar scams that followed the same modus, only jumping from one company to another.
Fourteen posts by several FB pages, most of them newly created, such as 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝑷𝑯-𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒔 (created on Sept. 10), NCCC Supermarket (Aug. 7), and DALI Grocery store (Sept. 1) collectively garnered 4,703 reactions, 18,165 comments and 18,866 reactions.
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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.)
