HOAX: This site offering free data for all networks is a scam
This site, submitted for fact-checking via PesaCheck’s WhatsApp Tipline, claiming to offer 100 GB of free internet data, is a HOAX.
The site claims to offer free data to users from all networks, and also bears comments from purported beneficiaries.
To start, users are prompted to click a button, after which the site asks for a phone number to verify their eligibility to receive the free data, which is valid for three months. After the supposed verification, users are informed that they have qualified for the offer.
However, to redeem the data, users are asked to share the link with five groups or 12 friends on a messaging app. Once this step is completed, they will receive the data within 15 minutes.
However, sites that ask users to share links with others to redeem offers or promotions are characteristic of phishing scams whose goal is to increase the reach of a scam.
Notably, on following the procedure, the site claims that after a final verification step, users may win phones, iPads, or other gifts. However, users do not receive any data. Clicking on the button prompts a redirect to an unrelated site.
These characteristics bear similarities to hoaxes promising free data that PesaCheck has previously debunked.
PesaCheck also conducted a Whois search of the website’s domain, which revealed that the registrant’s details are hidden, a tactic used by suspicious sites.
Similarly, a review of the site on VirusTotal also indicates that it is a phishing link.
PesaCheck has looked into a site submitted for fact-checking via PesaCheck’s WhatsApp Tipline, claiming to offer 100 GB of free internet data, 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 Harriet Ogayo and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck chief copy editor, Stephen Ndegwa.
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.