Careful who you follow, fake accounts of Pinoy Olympic athletes are spreading online
As Filipino athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics grow more popular, fake social media accounts using their names begin to surface.
Accounts impersonating Hidilyn Diaz, Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, and others have been going around on Twitter and Lyka where posers have been asking netizens for money.
These athletes aren't verified yet on some social media sites, but you can check out this list of their official accounts verified by ABAP officials:
Got in touch with ABAP officials since a lot of people are looking for the social media handles of our athletes.
Beware of posers and those misrepresenting them.
Here are the actual social media accounts for our Philippine boxers: pic.twitter.com/xwX4yNRrre— Paolo del Rosario (@paodelrosario) August 1, 2021
Hopefully, their accounts will get verified soon but until then, be wary of suspicious messages from accounts using these Filipino athletes' names. And make sure to check their official accounts listed above to see if they have accounts on other sites like Lyka, which posers can use to ask for GEMs.
Di po ito account ko. https://t.co/TUelrCxjAN
— Hidilyn Diaz OLY (@diaz_hidilyn) August 1, 2021
The athletes have been vocal about the fake accounts, letting their fans and supporters know about them. Some of them have also been asking for help to report these poser accounts to get them down.
Good evening po sa lahat. Paki report po please. hindi po ako yan, hindi ko po account yan po. ?? salamat po sa tulong. pic.twitter.com/xgcvEubELo
— Nesthy Petecio ??? (@nesthypetecio11) August 1, 2021