A number of Facebook (FB) pages have announced the sale of heavily-discounted earbuds from audio equipment manufacturer Marshall. This claim is fake. The impostor pages are not affiliated with the Marshall brand or any of its authorized distributors in the Philippines.
Posted this January, the bogus posts claimed that Marshall released the product Minor wireless earbuds and drew a huge crowd in one of its branches that left customers queuing for several hours. They carried a photo of the supposed launch and bore a caption that partly read:
“OFFICIAL APOLOGY – to all Filipinos. The release promotion of Marshall’s audio products, which includes the Minor wireless earbuds, at an incredible price of PHP 1,999 (original price: PHP 9,995) yesterday attracted an overwhelming response, with more than 1,000 customers flocking to Marshall Philippines – SM Megamall. This unexpected surge in demand led to an overload situation, causing many customers to endure long lines for up to 5 hours, but still unable to purchase their desired products. We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused.”
The poser pages further claimed that because of the incident, they will make the product available online through websites marshall-original.com, official-marshall.com and beyondthebox.tech.
These websites are not official platforms of Marshall and local distributor Beyond The Box (beyondthebox.ph), but phishing sites stealing information from netizens.
The latest version of the Minor wireless earbuds called the Minor III are only available through Marshall’s official store and its authorized retailers.
In a Jan. 25 message to VERA Files Fact Check, Marshall said the bogus websites and FB page are not on their list of authorized retailers.
“Our warranty coverage is exclusively applicable to products purchased through our official website marshallheadphones.com or through any of our Authorized Retailers,” Marshall said.
Beyond The Box, an official local distributor of Marshall products, also told VERA Files Fact Check on Jan. 25 that they only have one official Facebook and Instagram page:
“Any other pages claiming to be us are unauthorized and may potentially engage in fraudulent activities. We will take the necessary steps to address this issue.”
The bogus posts carried photos showing huge crowds and long queues from unrelated events. Reverse image search showed that one photo was taken in June 2023 during the opening of a Power Mac Center outlet at a mall in Makati.
Two other photos were also digitally altered to make it look like people were queuing outside of a Marshall store. Another photo taken from a similar angle showed that these images were not taken in the Philippines but in Lotte World Aquarium in Hanoi.
Marshall also reminded the public to be cautious of unauthorized retailers to ensure that you are buying genuine Marshall products.
This scam involving Marshall products used the same modus operandi of other electronics product scams that VERA Files Fact Check debunked last year, where scammers spread false claims about a product supposedly being sold online after physical stores were mobbed during its supposed launch.
Uploaded by bogus pages Marshall Philippines (created July 28, 2023) 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘅 (created Oct. 17, 2023) and 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐱 (created Jan. 18), the erroneous posts received a total of 9,357 interactions.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
