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It’s understandable that with everything seemingly going wrong, one can get tricked into winning some money. Scammers and con artists are at work targeting gullible Kenyans. They are posing as Kenya’s most prominent telcos namely Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom using websites to scam information from you.
So far, we have noticed three scams, two of which are still working. What interests us is the amount of work these scams put into making their websites look real.
You should refrain from clicking on these links but because we are here, for you, *pun intended* we clicked on them and here’s what we found out.
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Safaricom Gift/mpesa scam
The first scam comes dubbed as, Safaricom gift/mpesa. It has a Safaricom logo at the top and a simple description. The site states that you can have 3 chances to choose from 12 different boxes and you could win M-Pesa Cash. Sounds very captivating right? So we tried it.
This is how we knew it was fake:
- It’s not coming from the official Safaricom Website: We believe that every promotion or competition will be announced on the official website. This one is hosted on justmadeitknown.com. Also, that logo is just….. huffffffffff
- The game is rigged: The site states that you can only try it three times but I’ve been able to ‘win’ 5 times so far. In addition to this, no matter what box you choose, you will only have two tries and you will only win KES 2000 on your first try and KES 1000 on the next box. This totals to 3000 which they promise to send in 24hrs.
- Terms and conditions!!!: The terms and conditions clearly state that the site does not promise that you will win any money. They also go on to state that they are in no way in partnership with Safaricom or any other telecommunication service. Always read the terms. Finally, they state that they are not responsible for how and where your data will be used.
It’s all there. Don’t always skim through the terms and conditions. Let’s take a look at another scam.
Kenya COVID-19 Data Grant
This scam offers a different prize for those who fall for it.
The Government of Kenya Has Offered 200GB of DataTo All Citizen of Kenyan Above 13years. This applies to Every Citizen Entitle to Register For Only One Sim
Now, this site has a bit of extraness. It not only focuses on Safaricom but also involves Telkom and Airtel. They are offering 200GB supposedly from the Kenya COVID-19 Data Grants.
The offer is apparently available till 30th April 2020. They claim that so far, 236707 Kenyan Have Benefited From This Offer. The site goes a step further and adds new Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa as a sponsor. Talk about dedication to scamming!!
The scam is affecting so many people all over the world. In Kenya, 26,000 have already been seen or and or been fooled by this scam. Here’s a simple overview showing the people who have seen this scam so far.
Both scams have pretty much the same issues, so please, don’t click on any of these ads, but if you do, don’t give out any of your information. Make sure to read the terms and conditions and check if the site is legit.
Have you seen any of these scams?
[…] the risk of fraud, targeting both customers and FSPs. Incidences of fraudulent SIM replacements, phishing and data breaches have been reported. To address this risk, it is important that FSPs take measures […]