Facebook page posing as Ethiopian bank runs scams promotion

“It is with great pleasure that we announce that the CBE Birr *847# service has reached 104% of the forecast by receiving more than 111 billion customers in the first quarter of 2016!” reads the Amharic-language post published on January 27, 2024.

The Ethiopian calendar is eight years behind the Gregorian calendar and the first quarter runs from September to December. Meanwhile, *847# is a short code used to access the Birr mobile banking service. 

“We have provided various gifts for CBE Birr users in this regard. Those who see this post will be rewarded if they share it with just 10 people,” says the post, which has been shared more than 500 times.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on January 30, 2024

It was published in a Facebook group called “CBE Ethiopia-Country” with more than 23,000 members. The name also contains the Amharic word for prize. 

To receive a prize, participants are told to like the post and page, share the post in three different groups, and enter their phone numbers in the comments section. 

The post also lists various purported gifts, including houses, cars, three-wheelers, motorcycles and tablets.

Many users who interacted with the post provided their phone numbers in the comment section. Scammers usually use this information to obtain vital personal information including mobile banking details.  

CBE Birr is a mobile banking service (archived here) channelled by CBE through banking agents. It allows users to store money to make different types of payments. 

However, the claim that the bank is giving out prizes for reaching billions of customers – far greater than the entire estimated population of Ethiopia – is unfounded. 

Imposter page

Contacted by AFP Fact Check, CBE confirmed the page was a scam. 

“The Facebook page doesn’t belong to CBE. There are other similar pages using the CBE name and logo, including on other social media platforms whose aim is to deceive innocent people,” the bank said. 

“Therefore, we strongly advise our people not to respond to such fraudulent accounts. Prize-related issues are only entertained on our official pages.”  

The bank added that it does not have a separate Facebook page for CBE Birr. 

The scam page uses a profile photo showing an announcement by the CBE in December 2023 to update its mobile application. The same announcement (archived here) can also be found on the bank's official Facebook page.

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Screenshot of the original CBE announcement (left) and profile photo of the impostor page

CBE states (archived here) on its official website that it has more than 17 million CBE Birr users. This is in contrast to the scammer post's claim that the company reaches billions of users through CBE Birr.