FALSE: Pawnshop chain’s anniversary Facebook promo

Claim:

Palawan Pawnshop is launching a raffle promo on Facebook in line with its 35th anniversary this 2020. Customers were instructed to comment and share the post to various Facebook groups.

Facebook page Palawan Pawnshop 35th Anniversary posted on August 17 about the offer. It said that 30 people would win P5,000 each, and another 5 customers would be chosen to win P10,000 each.

The page said: “PARA IKAW ANG MAPILI NAMIN AY SUNDIN LANG ANG RULES PARA MAKITA KAAGAD NAMIN ANG PANGALAN MO! MAG COMMENT NG ‘ME’ 50x ISHARE ITO SA MGA GROUPS AT PAGKA TAPOS MONG GAWIN YAN AY MAAARI KA NG MAG MENSAHE SA AMING OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE.”

(Follow the rules to be chosen. Comment “me” 50 times and share this post to groups so that we would see your name easily! After you do that, you can message our Facebook page [for more details].)

The post then added a link to the profile of Facebook page Palawan Pawnshop 35th Anniversary. As of writing, the post had over 6,100 shares, 47,000 comments, and 1,800 reactions. It is still racking up Facebook engagement as of August 24. The page also had 8,250 followers.

Claim Check, Facebook’s monitoring tool that identifies potentially dubious posts shared across the platform, flagged the post for fact checkers to verify. It was also reported at least 55 times for containing false information.

Rating: FALSE

The facts:

The page that posted the photo is not the official Facebook account of Palawan Pawnshop. The official account of the company is Palawan Pawnshop – Palawan Express Pera Padala. This is the Facebook page linked on the official website of the financial services shop.

Palawan Pawnshop also issued an advisory on August 22, saying that they did not have an ongoing promo or giveaways. “Kapag kayo ay may makitang ibang account na may halos kaparehong pangalan at maging pati mga lalamanin, iyan ay peke at walang kaugnayan sa Palawan Pawnshop,” the company warned its customers.

(If you see other accounts that bear almost the same name and content as ours, that is fake and has no connection with Palawan Pawnshop.) 

Palawan Pawnshop launched its “Cashiyahan” raffle promo on its official Facebook account on August 17, where it asked customers to comment on this specific post using a selfie and message of support to the company. The official Facebook page then livestreamed an event in the afternoon of the same day to pick the winners. The full set of winners can be found here.

The official account of the pawnshop also stressed that entries shouldn’t contain any private information such as full name, card number, address, and contact number to avoid fraud and scams. It did not require customers to share their posts to various Facebook groups as the fake post said.

Meanwhile, the transparency section of the fake page Palawan Pawnshop 35th Anniversary showed that it was created only on August 17, the same day it posted the fake advisory.

The photo used by the fake page in its post was also only taken from Palawan Pawnshop’s official page. It was originally posted on August 16. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.