Johor crown prince’s cash giveaway sparks fake news frenzy

PETALING JAYA: Hundreds of people crowded a supermarket in the Johor town of Pontian yesterday after hearing that Johor's Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim was coming over to pay for their groceries, according to Malaysian media reports.

The prince had on Wednesday forked out over RM1 million (S$338,000) on groceries for shoppers at the Aeon Tebrau supermarket in Johor Baru.

Though told through public announcements at the Econsave Pontian supermarket that the news was fake, about 1,000 shoppers crowded the place as early as 10am yesterday.

Many people rushed to fill their shopping carts in the supermarket, Sinar Harian newspaper reported.

Pictures on social media showed dozens of people outside Econsave and many more inside. Police were called in to help control heavy traffic.

Econsave manager Mas Imran Adam said about 300 shopping carts filled with goods were abandoned after people learnt the prince was not coming, Sinar reported.

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She said management had called the police to confirm if the news of Tunku Ismail's visit was true and were told that it was not.

REFUSED TO BELIEVE

"Many items were damaged and we have a big job of clearing it up," Mas Imran said. "... many refused to believe that Tunku Ismail was not coming despite multiple announcements that the news was fake," she told Sinar.

The crowds were excited by a voice message by an unknown man saying that Tunku Ismail would be visiting every district in Johor to treat the people to groceries. The message had gone viral over WhatsApp.

The voice claimed that the prince would be spending approximately RM100,000 at the Pontian supermarket at noon yesterday and would give RM200 to every family present.

There was pandemonium on Wednesday in Tebrau, when Tunku Ismail turned up unexpectedly and offered to foot up to RM3,000 in groceries for every shopper. Most shoppers were seen taking up to three trolleys each. The mall had to increase their security to deal with the overwhelming crowds.