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Esther Mogaji
Claim
A broadcast message was seen in a Whatsapp group on the 30th of September, 2022 with the claim that MTN is giving free data and airtime to celebrate Independence day.
Two links were attached to the message, one for data and the other for airtime. Both links had the same home page (https://tiny.one/Nigeria-Independence-Free-Data?Airtime)
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MTN
MTN Group is a pan-African mobile and telecommunications operator which was founded in 1994. MTN has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.
MTN is reported to have 232 million mobile subscribers and 20 million mobile money subscribers throughout operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, the Republic of Guinea, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia.
Nigeria’s 62nd Independence
Nigeria’s Independence Day is an official national holiday celebrated on the 1st of October every year. It marks Nigeria’s proclamation of independence from British rule on 1 October 1960. The day is usually declared a holiday annually.
ROUNDCHECK Findings
To verify the information attached to the link, we opened the link. The home page looks like this:
After inserting one’s phone number and picking either 10GB worth of data or #5000 worth of airtime. Instruction will be given to share the link to 5 Whatsapp groups and 15 friends.
On the homepage, is the screenshot of Facebook comments of individuals who claimed to have gotten their data.
Checking the Facebook accounts, ROUNDCHECK discovered that there’s only one account with the name Anjali Arora which is a verified page of an Indian fashion model and influencer.
The profile picture of Anjali Arora displayed in the comment section of the fake claim doesn’t match the current profile picture on her original page.
Other Facebook accounts attached to the claim were unable to be traced by ROUNDCHECK as there were no matching profile pictures with the ones seen below. Hence, the screenshot of this comment section has been manipulated.
Using Verification Tool Shows Site Have Dubious Reputation
For further investigations, ROUNDCHECK used Whois to get information about the domain. It was seen that the site was just registered on the 29th of September, 2022. Also, the registrant hid some of the identities.
With the aid of Scamadviser, a platform known for validating the authenticity of websites, ROUNDCHECK discovered that several spammers and scammers use the same registrar.
A check was done on all verified MTN social accounts and there was no post about the link for independence day free 10G data and 5,000 airtime.
MTN Gave 6 Minutes Free Calls
However, to celebrate the 62nd Independence Day anniversary in Nigeria, users confirmed that MTN gave free 6 minutes call airtime.
At exactly 1:18 pm on October 1st (Nigeria’s 62nd Independence Day anniversary), Nnamdi Konu Egeonu tweeted that MTNNG was giving free 6 minutes 20 seconds of calls, and 62 free SMS to celebrate Independence day.
Also, Lawal Alaba, an MTN customer verified this information to ROUNDCHECK with a picture of the message he received from MTN on independence day.
The 6minutes free calls for all MTN users on October 1st, 2022 are not in any way related to the claim of free 10G data and 5,000 airtime.
Our findings showed that the site in the claim is not safe and it is designed to collate details of unsuspecting visitors.
Verdict
With our findings, it is concluded that the website claiming MTN is giving out free 10G data and 5,000 airtime to celebrate Nigeria’s 62nd Independence Day is INCORRECT. MTN is not giving out free 10G data and 5,000 airtime.
