The caption read: "To my apo Kenji. Real love doesn't need auto likes. Merry Christmas."

"Warning: Auto likers are fake. Your worth is not a number. Share a recipe instead. Mag-ingat palagi."

Kenji’s face went pale. He rushed to his laptop. His "Auto Liker" server had been breached. Because he had built it cheaply, without security protocols, a black-hat hacker from Eastern Europe had slipped a keylogger into the script.

He decided to build his own bot. He called it "Purong Pinoy Auto Liker."

Kenji had accidentally opened a bangketa (sidewalk) for cyber-criminals to walk right into the homes of a million Filipinos.

Within an hour, the Pure Pinoy group was flooded. Housewives wanted likes for their lechon manok photos. Aspiring singers wanted validation for their videoke covers. Even the group admin, a strict moderator named Mang Lito, secretly used the bot for his Sunday "Church Outfit" post.

Then Marites, the fish ball vendor, commented: "Forgiven. Next time, share my post manually, anak."

The trap was simple. "Free 500 likes for the first 50 users! Comment 'PB' (Pure Bait) to join!"