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No microfinance loans here – Facebook page just another scam

The Facebook page “KOPA MKOPO online” offers quick and easy loans from reputable Kenyan micro lenders. But it’s a scam.

The fraudsters earn money by charging people who apply for the loans a KSh290 “membership fee”.

The page was set up on 3 August 2020 and is followed by just two people. It gives its website as kenya.com, but that domain is unregistered and up for sale.

It has so far posted four loan offers, from KWFT – the Kenya Women Microfinance Bank – and Faulu Microfinance Bank.

Each post links to a Google Form where people wanting the loans are told to apply. But any offer on Facebook that seems too good to be true – for a loan, a job or free stuff – with a link to a Google Form instead of an official website is a sure sign of a scam.

One link on the page goes to a form where applicants are asked for the KSh290 fee. But another has been removed by Google for violating its terms of service.



‘Kindly stay vigilant’


On 24 July Africa Check exposed other scam Facebook pages offering KWFT loans. The page “KOPA MKOPO online” was set up a week and a half later.

And on 11 August Faula Microfinance Bank warned the public about Facebook scams using its name.

“Kindly take note of the scam page below using the Faulu name to defraud customers,” the company posted on its verified Facebook page.

“Faulu has an official Facebook page which has a blue tick as a badge. Any page or group apart from this that uses Faulu name to ask for money from clients in order to apply for a loan is fake ... Kindly stay vigilant.”

To help protect yourself and others against scams like this, see Africa Check’s guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them. – Grace Gichuhi




 

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