DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 March) — A Facebook page named “EMCOR” appearing to impersonate the company EMCOR is drawing concern after users reported receiving unsolicited messages claiming they had won a raffle prize and directing them to click a link.
The page is one of many spotted over many months impersonating pages such as EMCOR, Motortrade, Gaisano Capital, and NCCC, among others.
The page pretends to hold a raffle contest or a giveaway promo through a post and asks people who are interested to comment on the page.
It then targets all commenters through private messages and asks individuals to sign up through a link.
The page persistently used the same Messenger account to send invitations that were similarly worded.
The link sent by the impersonating page leads to a Google Sites page that redirects to a Google sign-in screen.
This in itself is a red flag, as Emcor has an official website that is publicly available and does not require a login. Sign-in links such as the one above are also typical phishing red flags, where websites gather information for malicious purposes.
In comparison, the official Facebook page of EMCOR shows clear differences. The legitimate page was created on May 6, 2012, has over 323K likes and 349K followers, carries the Meta verification badge, and regularly publishes posts and updates.
These screenshots shows that the fake Emcor page is a real estate firm. Emcor is not one.
These noticeable differences suggest that the recently created page may be impersonating the legitimate company.
The fake EMCOR page was created on November 13, 2024, and currently has around 1.4k followers and approximately 1.2k likes.
The page is not Meta verified and appears to have no public posts.
In the comments section of the page, several Facebook users have already warned others about the possibility of a scam. Some comments directly call the page a scammer.
One comment from the page’s profile picture says, “Ahahah scammer,” while another comment says, “Scam p*kyu.” These comments reflect the suspicions of some users regarding the legitimacy of the page.
A screenshot of the messages from the impersonating page. MINDANEWS photo by NORIELLE TONONG
The impersonating page has also been noted for changing the names of companies it represents, including known brands like Gaisano and Motortrade, likely as part of attempts to lure unsuspecting users.
Similar scams involving fake Facebook pages impersonating companies have been reported before. In a fact-check published by VERA Files, impostor pages using the name of EMCOR falsely claimed the company was giving away hundreds of washing machines.
The fact-check concluded that the claim was “Fake: The alleged washing machine giveaway is a scam which did not come from the official Facebook page of retail business corporation EMCOR.”
For its part, EMCOR has posted several warnings on its social media channels about scam pages impersonating the brand.
MindaNews has collected URLs of fake EMCOR pages that appear to use the same modus, but these links have since expired, possibly suspended by Meta or deactivated by the admins themselves.
As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes fact-check leads or suggestions from the public. (Norielle Tonong / DOrSU Intern)
