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There are so many scams nowadays trying to get Kenyans to send money to get free donations and gifts and prizes. We are here to report any that we find and help you understand what makes these seemingly plausible offers scams. Today we look at a Kenol Kobil K-Gas scam running on social media.
K-Gas Scam
??NEW CON ALERT!!!??
Con Men purporting to be K Gas, are coning Kenyans with false Gas giveaways. The con is similar to the Tanks scam where one is to pay a delivery fee .@KenolKobil @SafaricomPLC @Safaricom_Care
Buruburu
Tanzania#JKIA#GasScam#KGASCON pic.twitter.com/BqcowBVzDA— Cpt. Exley??✈️ (@ths_man_manu) April 29, 2020
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Long story short, someone is purporting to be giving out free donations of K-Gas cylinders of 6 and 13 kgs. This scam may have fooled many already due to it’s attention to detail.
You can only book either the 6 kg Gas cylinders or the 13k g gas cylinders depending on your preference. Please note that the Cylinder is already filled with Gas.
The scam starts off with a pretty good website, compared to other previously mentioned scams.
- The website has some background information on Kenol Kobil and Gas cylinders.
- It goes on to have some regulations to who can get this free gas
- Followed by step by step instructions to getting this gas
- The site also uses the words like ‘if your booking is approved’ so as to reduce any implications and follow-ups from those who don’t receive the gas.
- Finally, it even has a ‘copyright’ footer to legitimise the site.
Scam Breakdown
For those who are not regular readers, whenever we come across a scam here at Gadgets Africa, we like to break it down and see what aspects make it stand out as fake. This time the conmen did a pretty good job but they still failed in some areas:
- The ‘donation’ is not coming from the official Kenol Kobil site: Whenever companies like this start a major campaign, they will either post it on their main website or their social media pages.
- Sending money to get something ‘free’: This is the ‘reddest’ of flags. When there’s a campaign witg=h something free, it should be totally free. There are no delivery or pick-up or drop-off charges.
- You will never be asked to send money to a personal number: Most if not all companies will never ask you to send money. If they do, it might be for donations or a bigger cause and in that case, you will be given a Paybill number where all records can be accounted for publicly. Don’t fall for this.
All applicants are required to pay a delivery fee of ksh400 for the 6kg gas cylinders and Ksh 500 for the 13 kg gas cylinder.This is however automatically refunded if your booking is rejected. Please do not pay any other fee because the cost of the gas cylinder has been catered for by K-Gas Kenya.
Kenol Kobil Replies
Kenol Kobil has spoken about the matter and urges Kenyans to beware of the scam.
Please beware of the below fake promotion. K-Gas is not giving away free cylinders. The below page does not belong to us or any of our authorized K-Gas dealers.
Please beware of the below fake promotion. K-Gas is not giving away free cylinders and the below page does not belong to us or any of our authorized K-Gas dealers. #StaySafe pic.twitter.com/irkNSTt6xH
— KenolKobil Limited (@KenolKobil) May 15, 2020
However, this comes weeks after someone had already reported the matter on Twitter. We can only hope that not too many people have fallen prey to this scam.
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