Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Thursday he had deactivated his official Facebook account and warned the public against the rise of online scams involving his name.
“For the umpteenth time, I’m cautioning the public to be wary of scams using my name,” Panelo told reporters.
“As a result of this, I have decided to cut all my Facebook accounts, Messenger and everything so that they can no longer use it.
“Anybody who uses my name and anybody who comes out with a Facebook account”•that’s a fake. I’m cutting everything.”
Panelo said he had reported the incident to National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran for investigation.
He said this was the fifth scam that he had heard about the use of his name where the money had been deposited to accounts in the name of other people.
“It appears in that note that there are exchanges coming from me that I was asking for money,” Panelo said.
“I wanted to curse like the President,” he said, adding he could not imagine why people he personally knew entertained the scam.
“I really cannot understand why these people who are supposed to know me would be believing that,” Panelo said.
“The only reason I can conclude is that my name seems to be very credible, so they’re using my name.”
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