Fake grocery giveaway promoted on Facebook in the Philippines
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 16, 2023 at 10:23
- 3 min read
- By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines
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A Facebook page named "Robinsons Supermarket Fans" posted four photos showing bags and boxes of grocery items on February 10. It has been shared more than 2,600 times.
Robinsons Supermarket is a grocery chain with more than 300 stores across the Philippines. It is operated by one of the largest business conglomerates in the archipelago.
The post's Tagalog-language caption translates to English as, "On Valentine's Day, we will deliver 940 free boxes on your doorstep. For those who will write 'Happy Valentine'".
A link that leads to a webpage where people can purportedly register their personal details for the supposed raffle is also shown.
Comments from some users indicated they believed the posts show a genuine promotion by the supermarket chain.
One wrote, "Happy Valentines!! Robinson (sic), God bless always".
Another said, "Happy valentines day Robinson Supermarket".
In response to some of these comments, one of the Facebook page's admins pledged to share "the next step to get the prize" if users shared the post to at least seven Facebook groups.
Similar social media posts were shared more than 37,000 times here, here and here on Facebook since at least January.
But Robinsons Supermarket marketing manager Aja Totanes told AFP that the posts "are all scams".
"Games or online raffle promos will only be done on verified (blue check) official social media pages of Robinsons Supermarket," she said.
In an advisory on its Facebook page on January 18, the grocery chain asked customers not to join "raffle promos posted on unofficial pages asking for...personal information".
It also posted a link to its official websites.
Unrelated photos
The images seen in the scam posts were previously published in articles from outside the Philippines, according to multiple reverse image and keyword searches.
The first photo was uploaded to a now-deleted website for the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Mississippi, United States.
A keyword search of the brand name "Piggly Wiggly" seen in the photo shows a grocery store with the same name in the area.
The second image was used in an article headlined "Newcastle MP slams Iain Duncan Smith plan to put job centre staff in foodbanks".
It was published in 2015 on the website of the Newcastle Chronicle, a UK-based newspaper.
The photo of paper bags filled with grocery items was published on an old website for the Salvation Army youth group in Chicago.
Keyword searches for one of the items in the photo found old packaging for US-based "Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers".
The image showing rows of boxes was found in a news report headlined "Newark Area Welfare Committee distributes 300 food boxes to families in need", published in 2017 by the Newark Post, a newspaper based in the US state of Delaware.
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