Scam for gaining followers via “free” phones persists on Facebook
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 20, 2020 at 15:05
- 3 min read
- By Mayowa TIJANI, AFP Nigeria
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One such post shared more than 1,000 times claims to have given 500 iPhones to “previous winners”, adding there were many more to be won. “Here is another chance for another set of 8,000 people to win IPHONE. Win brand new IPHONE of your choice today (sic),” the post reads.
The same text has been shared here -- with slightly different pictures, also claiming to show previous winners of the promotion.
“To enter the draw; just type ‘I’ without being interrupted by another competitor,” the post says.
Another page by the name “Cell Phone Giveaway” claims to be giving out phones to “help children who are studying nowadays because of covid”. It asks followers in a mixture of English and Filipino to react to the post, make a comment 20 times, and share in “all groups”.
“I repeat this is not a scam we just want to be able to help kids without cell phones and studies (sic),” the caption adds, using a picture of a Realme phone. The post has been shared more than 58,000 times and has received more than 283,000 comments since July 27, 2020.
Yet another post asked followers to spell football star “Ronaldo” in the comments -- with one letter per comment -- for a chance to win a phone, pictured in the post. After hundreds of comments, the page removed the caption with the instruction, but comments under the picture nevertheless show followers attempting to spell “Ronaldo”.
Images taken elsewhere
AFP Fact Check ran multiple reverse image searches to get the actual source of the pictures being used in these posts. For instance, the post claiming to be giving away 8,000 iPhones got its pictures from iPhone RJ and iPhones Rio De Janeiro, both phone retailers in Brazil.
The post asking followers to spell “Ronaldo” in the comment section sourced its picture from Joll Mall, an e-commerce website selling phone cases.
While unable to find the source of the image in the post claiming to offer Realme phones, we discovered another fake page -- called Vivo and Realme giveaways -- with the same picture and offer. The post has been shared more than 11,000 times since August 4, 2020.
We also checked the page transparency information of the “Cell Phone Giveaway” and the “Vivo and Realme giveaways” pages and found that both were created on July 27, 2020. The former now boasts 37,000 followers and the latter 7,000.
Neither Apple, Vivo nor Realme is running any promotions of this nature, according to their official websites and social media accounts.
The aim is followers
AFP Fact Check has debunked a series of similar claims being shared on Facebook in Africa and found that they employ such methods to grow their follower numbers, before selling on the pages, which then often change names.
In 2020, fresh giveaway scams have exploited the novel coronavirus outbreak to lure Facebook users, usually claiming to be giving out phones to students to help them study during the pandemic. AFP Fact Check debunked the claims here.
We also published a round-up here of the common types of Facebook scams in Africa and tips on how to avoid falling prey to them.
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