HOAX: This Facebook page mimicking BBC and soliciting financial assistance from users is a scam
This Facebook page imitating the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and soliciting financial assistance from well-wishers is a HOAX.
The Facebook page has the broadcaster’s branding and its username is “BBC News Nigeria.”
The imposter page shares what it describes as “true life events and eyewitness reports” of a man identified only as John, who is nursing spinal and leg injuries.
John, according to the story, sustained the injuries after a quarry caved in on him and others as they worked in 2021.
This incapacitated him and his family is struggling financially. John’s wife is now the family’s sole breadwinner, the story adds.
“Am suffering day and night because sometimes I used old clothes like a pampers because of lack of money that it’s not Good (sic) for my Hygiene…” the post, which has garnered over 10,000 reactions and 6,000 comments, reads in part.
Because of John’s prevailing condition, the post appeals to well-wishers for financial support through a provided account number.
The Facebook page is, however, not a legitimate page of the BBC in Nigeria. In an email response to PesaCheck, a BBC spokesperson said that none of the BBC language pages for Nigeria goes by the username BBC Nigeria as claimed.
The current BBC language Facebook pages for Nigeria are BBC News Igbo, BBC Hausa, BBC News Pidgin, and BBC News Yoruba. There is no mention of the medical appeal on any of the aforementioned authentic BBC Facebook pages.
Unlike the imposter page, all the BBC Facebook pages catering for the Nigerian market contain the blue verification checkmark.
Additionally, apart from the BBC Hausa Facebook page created in 2010, according to the Facebook Transparency information page, the BBC News Pidgin, BBC News Yoruba and BBC News Igbo, were created in 2017.
The Facebook transparency information about the imposter page shows that it was created on 24 January 2023, days before it posted the financial appeal.
According to the BBC spokesperson, the broadcaster does not make financial appeals to its audiences.
“This unverified Facebook page — BBC Nigeria News — does not belong to the BBC. All our social media pages are verified, the BBC would never request financial assistance from its audiences. We take the protection of our audiences seriously and we are taking appropriate action to address this scam,” the statement from the spokesperson read.
PesaCheck has examined the Facebook page mimicking the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and soliciting financial assistance from users 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 senior fact-checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s 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.