HOAX: This website purportedly offering M-PESA cash giveaways is a scam
SearchWrite Sign up Sign in PesaCheck Follow This website, submitted for fact-checking via PesaCheck’s WhatsApp Tipline and claiming to offer cash giveaways through Safaricom’s M-PESA service, is a HOAX. The site claims that M-PESA is issuing KSh5,000 gift vouchers to all its customers to celebrate its anniversary. To qualify, users must first provide their phone numbers to get the purported gift voucher. The next phase requires prospective beneficiaries to select their gender, after which they are requested to share the link with five WhatsApp groups or 15 friends. But is the giveaway authentic? The website has red flags, among them exerting pressure on users to act fast. For instance, the site repeatedly says, “Hurry and get this amazing offer.” The site also requests users share the link on WhatsApp to enter the giveaway. This is consistent with PesaCheck’s research on red flags for online scams. The site uses a suspicious URL ‘https://m-pesa.programs.lat/Gifts#1728237727749’ which is different from the authentic Safaricom website ‘https://www.safaricom.co.ke/’ A WHOIS search established that the impostor website was registered in Iceland on 10 June 2024. Information about the registrant is hidden, while the authentic Safaricom website was registered by Safaricom PLC on 12 February 2003. Legitimate sites tend to be much older than hoax sites, which also have hidden details about the registrant, raising suspicion. A review of Safaricom’s website, Facebook page, and X (formerly Twitter) account did not yield the giveaway in question. PesaCheck contacted Safaricom on X and established that the giveaway was not authentic. “These are fraudsters. Do not follow any procedure or click any link,” Safaricom said. PesaCheck examined a website submitted for fact-checking via PesaCheck’s WhatsApp Tipline, and claiming to offer cash giveaways through Safaricom’s M-PESA service, and found it to be a HOAX. This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms. By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds. Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content. This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Rodgers Omondi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah. PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org. PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations. Are they lying? Kenya’s 1st fact-checking initiative verifies statements by public figures. A @Code4Kenya and @IBP_Kenya initiative, supported by @Code4Africa. in in in in in in HOAX: Thi
