MANILA -- The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has warned the public against fake pages on social media using the agency’s name, logo and lottery products.
PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said he has received reports that unscrupulous persons are using social media to deceive people.
“These fake accounts are not new, anyway. Pero mag-ingat po lagi tayo para hindi tayo mabiktima ng mga manggagantso (But let us always be careful so we do not fall prey to fraudsters),” Balutan said in a statement Thursday.
A recent scam involves a social media page using PCSO's logo that announced that they will be giving away a house and lot to a lucky winner.
The winner, according to the announcement, will be selected from those who followed instructions on the social media page as their entry.
Among the instructions is to Like and Share the page, an obvious ploy to increase the audience share of the page, Balutan said, noting that the page now has more than 34,000 likes.
“However, if you look into the date they will be announcing the winner, it is April 1, which incidentally is April Fool’s day,” he said. “We still don't know if the owners of the site just want likes or will they be requesting for the ‘winner’ to give them some money to facilitate the turning over of the prize, similar to the ‘Nigerian’ scams using the email to scam people years ago.”
Balutan called on the public not to patronize these fake sites and instead visit the official website of the PCSO for official announcements, winning numbers, and other updates from the agency. (PR)
