Filipina boxer Nesthy Petecio sought help online to report false Facebook accounts pretending to be her.
Petecio marked her debut on Twitter on July 29.
In a tweet on August 1, she attached screenshots of these fake Facebook pages. Some of them already have followers and friends.
She also wrote with pleading emojis: “Good evening po sa lahat. Paki report po please. hindi po ako yan, hindi ko po account yan po. salamat po sa tulong.”
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
— @nesthypetecio11 (@nesthypetecio11) August 1, 2021
In a separate tweet, which had been deleted, Petecio provided details of her official social media accounts, which are:
- Instagram: neshpetecio
- Facebook page: Nesthy Petecio – world champion
- Tiktok: nesh114
- Lyka: nesthypetecio
Olympian is set to bring home either a gold or a silver following her victory against Italian contender Irma Testa last July 31 at the women’s featherweight semifinals during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Petecio’s gold medal match is on Tuesday, August 3.
Some Filipinos also found fake Twitter accounts of another boxing athlete, Eumir Marcial.
TV host Gretchen Ho was among the users who noticed this. She also warned that some of these accounts are being used to ask for money.
“Hi, to everyone — this isn’t the official account of Eumir Marcial. We’ve confirmed with ABAP,” Ho said.
ABAP is spelled out as “Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines.”
“Ingat nalang po because we’ve received reports of people creating fake accounts of our boxers, messaging people and asking for money,” Ho continued.
ESPN sportswriter Paolo del Rosario then attached the details of the Filipino boxers’ official handles as confirmed by ABAP.
“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,” he also wrote.
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
Marcial is also assured of the Philippines’ third Olympic medal after he won against Armenian Arman Darchinyan at the men’s middleweight quarterfinal last August 1.
He is set to face Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak in the semifinal on August 5.
