Tag Archive for: #FactCheck

Fact-Check Sorry, Ecobank not offering $ 3000 present on 40th Anniversary211 Check

Fact-Check: Sorry, Ecobank not offering $ 3000 present on 40th Anniversary

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It’s true that Ecobank has an upcoming event. But it’s not an anniversary, not its 40th either. This is an event hinged on corporate social responsibility and no participants are required to click the malicious link above in order to join. And, there will be no specified $3000 present, at least.

By Charles Lotara

As the Ecobank Day draws closer, a promotional message with a malicious link has hit WhatsApp platform and has been shared multiple times.

The message prompts users to “click the link to participate in the survey” and “have a chance to win $3000”. This is purportedly happening on the 40th Anniversary of Ecobank.

It is untrue. Ecobank was established in 1985 according to the data on the company’s official website. That makes the bank 36 years old.

Screenshot of Scam WhatsApp Message

The Uniform Resource Locator

Further verification and fact-checking on the link reveals that the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://dinnerscare.top attached to the WhatsApp message crafted by a Nigerian user was registered on 28/09/2021.

According to Whois.com, a site that reveals domain identity, the website is hosted by Alibaba.com, Chinese-owned e-commerce giant.

While it is conventionally common that a credible website can be hosted outside the country of the domain registrant, the web address attached to this promotional message attributed to Ecobank is registered under a company called lvhai Ming in Liaoning, a province in China.

The company’s details could not be established by 211 Check as it was not indexed by major search engines at the time of writing. This could be because the company is still new and yet to be indexed by search engines or it is operating as a pseudonym, an aspect search crawler strongly discourages.

A Safe Web Report Generated by Norton Safe Web, a web reputation management service by NortonLifeLock, rated the site http://dinnerscare.top as “Cautious”, among sites that  “may have a small number of threats and annoyances”.

The domain analyses indicate no link between Ecobank and the URL on the text accompanied by random characters.

About the Ecobank Event

It is true that Ecobank has an upcoming event slated for 22nd October 2021, which is on Friday this week.

Dubbed the Ecobank Day, it is the day on which the bank will be “raising about mental health”. The Pan African Bank started the three-year campaign ‘Together for Better Health’ in 2019 to show its commitment to preventing NCDs, which encompasses mental, neurological and substance use disorders.

“We are raising awareness and helping to prevent the incidence of NCDs across Africa. The annual highlight of the campaign is during Ecobank Day, our pan-African initiative that takes place in the last quarter of each year, when Ecobank and its staff give back to their communities,” a statement on the bank’s official website read.

Conclusion

It’s true that Ecobank has an upcoming event. But it’s not an anniversary, not its 40th either. This is an event hinged on corporate social responsibility and no participants are required to click the malicious link above in order to join. And, there will be no specified $3000 present, at least.

To know more about our fact-checking process, visit:  https://211check.org/how-to-fact-check/ or send us a WhatsApp Message at +211 917 298 255 to present a claim, our team will immediately fact-check it and send you a feedback.

Copy of National Youth Empowerment Fund Hoax211 Check

Fact-Check: Has the South Sudan Government Announced Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination?

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On Wednesday 13th October 2021, a press release by the office of The Vice President for Service Cluster and Chairman of the National Taskforce on COVID-19, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, announced that Public and Private Institutions will now have to undergo Mandatory COVID-19 Test and Vaccination.

By David Uku

Several media reports published in the last few days state that the South Sudan government has announced a new mandatory COVID-19 Test and Vaccination for all private and public institutions in the country, 211 Check was contacted to verify.

Findings: 

On Wednesday 13th October 2021, a press release by the office of The Vice President for Service Cluster who also doubles as the Chairman of the National Taskforce on COVID-19, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, announced that Public and Private Institutions will now have to undergo Mandatory COVID-19 Test and Vaccination.

“We will carry out mass testing, Vaccination programs, Rapid Diagnostic Tests,  in all the public and private institutions. This is to caution all the institutions because in the next few months, travelling outside might require mandatory COVID-19 vaccine certificates and it can help to gauge the level of infections in the country and adhere to the Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs),” partly reads the announcement.

John Pasquale Rumunu, the Health Ministry’s Director-General for Preventive Health Services and Acting COVID-19 Incident Manager said on Sunday they are set to roll out mass testing using the rapid diagnostic test to gauge the level of infection in the country for both public officials and the private sector in a bid to contain coronavirus. 

‘“The taskforce resolved to carry out mass vaccination program in all the public and private institutions, this is to caution all the institutions to know that in the next few months to come travelling outside might require mandatory COVID-19 vaccine certificates” he told Journalists in Juba on Sunday during the regular media briefing on COVID-19. 

Sacha Bootsman, World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Incident manager in South Sudan disclosed that so far only 0.3 per cent of South Sudan’s 12.2 million population is vaccinated. According to her, they have administered 120,412 vaccine doses to 35,755 people out of 2.4 million targets they had set in April this year when vaccination commenced.

South Sudan has vaccinated 22,103 of its health workers with only 2,782 receiving the Johnson and Johnson jabs since October 8 when the vaccination campaign was launched.

The United States donated 152,950 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine to South Sudan in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic on 14th September 2021, it is the vaccine currently being used the country following the completion of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility. It should be noted that South Sudan has not bought a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 Cases:

South Sudan has a total of 12,223 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 11,726 recoveries and 130 deaths since April last year when the first case was registered in the country  

Conclusion:

It is TRUE that the Government has announced mass COVID-19 testing and vaccination. The announcement has been made by both the National Taskforce on COVID-19 and the Ministry of Health. 

National Youth Empowerment Fund Hoax211 Check

Fact-Check: Is the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme Legitimate?

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The Federal Republic of Nigeria has an initiative named Presidential Youth Entrepreneurship Support (P-YES) and the application dates for 2021 have not yet been announced. Their official site is hosted at www.p-yes.gov.ng 

By: Oriba Douglas 

A widely shared WhatsApp message claims that the National Youth Empowerment Fund, a federal government agency in the Federal Republic of Nigeria is giving out ₦150,000 – ₦550,000 grants to citizens under the age of 13-65 years from 2021 – 2024 (it fails to specify which country). It calls for this to be achieved through interested persons applying and registering through their given website hosted at https://youth-empowerments.ethut.co 

Message Extract in full:

The message reads;

“*National Youth Empowerment Fund Application Form 2021 Is Out*

National Youth Empowerment Funding Application Form 2021 online for registration exercise which is the quickest to apply for is now out for all bonafide citizens only who needs helping hands in their various Business and Education

*The National Youth Empowerment Funds is vision into giving out ₦150,000 – ₦550,000 grant to every Citizen under the age 13-65 years from 2021-2024*.

Age 13-25 (150,000-300,000)

Age 25-65(400,000-700,000)

*October Payments has began for all applicants, Register To be Part of the Beneficiaries

*Strictly for Students and Business owners*

Check Eligibility and Apply here

WhatsApp Message of the Scam

Investigation:

211 Check followed the link attached to the WhatsApp message. It leads to a site on the internet with the URL https://youth-empowerments.ethut.co. The page presents the visitor with a bold header relaying the message Presidential Youth Empowerment Fund and is flaunted on the left by a logo that is used by the official P-YES, on the right a coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and below are the Flags of Uganda, Ghana, Cameroun, Namibia plus the Coat of arms of the Republic of Kenya. 

The page further seeks to whey the visitors through a site marquee that stresses “The Presidential Youth Empowerment Funds for all citizens…”

A timer is also included on the website to state till when the offer will remain available.

The page then flows on to a simple HTML form.

The form starts off with some brief statements about the scheme. The form has spaces for full name, Country, Home Address, Phone Number, and Email Address before being presented with a button labelled “proceed” that once clicked ushers page 2 of the form presents Congratulatory messages stating that application has been received and to acquire the funds immediately one is asked to answer three questions that are on a carousel. Once all three questions are answered. A new page loads bearing messages like “after receiving and checking your application, you have been approved to receive the Presidential Youth Empowerment Funds for Free.

A precondition to receive the funds is then added stating that the money will be available immediately a button labelled “invite friends/groups” is clicked so as to share a replica of the same message at the very base of this fact check report to other WhatsApp users and groups. The precondition further dictates that the sharing be done till a blue bar on the site is full.

Analysis and Findings:

Red Flag 1: The first website’s first landing page displays flags and coats of arm of different African Countries in a manner lacking any officiality.

Red Flag 2: Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme is not registered as a valid  youth empowerment scheme anywhere in Africa but on the contrary Nigeria recently launched Presidential Youth Entrepreneurship Support (P-YES) whose official logo exists on the fake site’s landing page.

Red Flag 3: The currency to be given out is Nigerian Naira, unsuitable for transactions among countries with different currencies and economies

Red Flag 4: The site borrows heavily the names, flags and logos from Official Nigerian establishments.

Red Flag 5: Without filling the form, #211Check was able to go to page 2 where the following questions were asked:

1. What is your employment Status?

2. What is your Marital status?

3. Choose age range?”

Red Flag 6: A false comments section accompanying page 2 bearing forged Facebook comments with alleged beneficiaries writing good reviews about the grant scheme. 

Red Flag 7: After answering the 3 questions on page 2, you are immediately notified that your application was successful.

Red Flag 8: You are required to mass resend a version of the WhatsApp message that likely brought you to the site in the first place, in order to receive your cash grant.

Analysis:

Analysing the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme website using the tool hosted at https://whois.domaintools.com showed that the website was registered and hosted on 13th July 2021

The domain was registered in the US and the current IP location is New Jersey, US.

The IP history shows that within the last 97 days the IP address has been changed four times.

A look at the source code to the website indicates the form on the site has no capabilities to submit any data entered into it and thus just there to create an environment that mimics the real thing. Developer tools on Microsoft Edge were used to analyse this.

Conclusion:

False, the website is fraudulent and its whole purpose is spam, mostly spamming WhatsApp platforms. 

The Federal Republic of Nigeria has an initiative named Presidential Youth Entrepreneurship Support (P-YES) and the application dates for 2021 have not yet been announced. Their official site is hosted at www.p-yes.gov.ng 

SCAM ALERT Fake UNICEF South Sudan Job Offers

SCAM ALERT: These UNICEF South Sudan Career Opportunities are Fake

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The UNICEF South Sudan Communications Officer has told 211 Check that the recruitment for vacant positions allegedly by the organisation is fake, and no one should recognize it because they don’t receive job applications via email.

By Emmanuel Bida Thomas

A job posting purportedly from UNICEF South Sudan has been making the rounds on social media, advertising over 8,000 jobs in a variety of departments ranging from interns to administrators in all ten states of South Sudan.

Interested Applicants are asked to send their cover letter, CV, and National ID to an unrelated Web email, but the job advertisement bears all of the hallmarks of a scam, as have many others exposed by 211 Check.

Image of the Fake Job Advertisement

The job listings are on an image rather than the official website  of UNICEF South Sudan that is supposedly hiring. Such documents are quick and easy to set up and look official. 

The email is designed to look as though it is an official UNICEF South Sudan email, but is a free Gmail email – @gmail.com. Official UNICEF email ends in – unicef.org. 

When 211 Check contacted the UNICEF South Sudan communications office, its Communication Officer, Richard Ruati said that the recruitment for vacant positions allegedly by UNICEF South Sudan is fake, and no one should recognize it because the organisation doesn’t receive job applications via email.

“We have noticed the unfortunate job adverts purported in the name of UNICEF. Please note that these adverts, emails and slogans are fake, and no one should recognize them. UNICEF releases job adverts only on https://jobs.unicef.org/en-us/, and we don’t receive job adverts through emails,” Richard Ruati wrote in an email reply to 211 Check.

When you see a job advertised on Social Media, avoid providing personal information such as your National ID or Phone Number through unofficial emails or websites, and ensure that the link provided (if any) takes you to the organization’s official website.

To avoid becoming a victim of a job scam, use the SCAM CHECK or read what the UN Careers has to say about job SCAMS.

Conclusion:

211 Check has looked into jobs advertised in the name of UNICEF South Sudan — and finds them to be a SCAM

To know more about our fact-checking process, visit:  https://211check.org/how-to-fact-check/ or send us a WhatsApp Message at +211 917 298 255 to present a claim, our team will immediately fact-check it and send you a feedback.

Is WhatsApp Ending Tomorrow at 6 PM211 Check

Fact-Check: Is WhatsApp ‘ending tomorrow at 6 pm’? Here’s the truth

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Old hoax about WhatsApp ‘ending tomorrow at 6 pm’ circulating again in South Sudan, but here’s the truth

By 211 Check Editorial Team

The infamous Varun Pulyani WhatsApp message has reappeared. The fake message purporting to be from WhatsApp’s director, Varun Pulyani, has been circulating once more since the platform’s decision to update its privacy policy sparked outrage among users. The fake message, which has previously circulated on several occasions, claims that the platform will begin charging money unless users spread the message.

“Do not ignore please read it carefully” Hello, I am VARUN PULYANI director of whatsapp, this message is to inform all our users that we have sold whatsapp to Mark Zuckerberg for 19 billion dollars. WhatsApp is now controlled by mark zuckerberg. If you have at least 20 contacts, send this text message and your whatsapp logo will change to a new icon with the “f” of facebook in 24 hours. Forward this message to more than 10 people to activate your new whatsapp with facebook services or else your account will be removed from the new servers,” says the fake WhatsApp message.

The message goes on to say that “the platform’s servers have recently been very congested, which is why we are asking for your assistance.” This issue has been resolved. We require our active users to forward this message to each of their contacts in order to confirm our active users using WhatsApp; if you do not forward this message to all of your contacts, WhatsApp will begin charging you, (SIC).”

“If you do not send this message to all your contacts, WhatsApp will then start to charge you. Your account will remain inactive with the consequence of losing all your contacts,” the message reads

Users should be aware, however, that there is no Varun Pulyani in WhatsApp, and that the platform only disseminates information through its official blog or social media handles. VARUN PULYANI is not, and has never been, a WhatsApp director. The message that is going around is a hoax. 

Debunked in 2012 and many times since

A simple search on Google shows that different versions of this message have been circulating for at least nine years. 

And they’ve been debunked several times. One of the latest reports was a January 2020 fact-check by Africa Check and an October 2021 report by DataQuest. At the time, a post on the WhatsApp blog dismissed the messages as “a hoax”.

WhatsApp advisory on hoax messages

On its website, WhatsApp advises users that unwanted messages from unauthorised third parties try to “deceive you and prompt you to act in a certain way.” It lists four signs of hoax messages:

  • The sender claims to be affiliated with WhatsApp.
  • The message content includes instructions to forward the message.
  • The message claims you can avoid punishment, like account suspension, if you forward the message.
  • The message content includes a reward or gift from WhatsApp or another person.

South Sudan WhatsApp users are being targeted by this hoax, but when you receive a scam message, WhatsApp advises that you block the sender, disregard the message and delete it. – 211 Check

Conclusion:

211 Check, therefore, concludes that the WhatsApp message and audio circulating are a HOAX, disregard the message and do not forward it further.

To know more about our fact-checking process, visit:  https://211check.org/how-to-fact-check/ or send us a WhatsApp Message at +211 917 298 255 to present a claim, our team will immediately fact-check it and send you a feedback.