IN SHORT: Scammers often pretend to be celebrities to make money from Facebook users. In this case, they're pretending to be actor Othman Jabali, who plays Jabali Junior in the popular Tanzanian TV drama Sultana.
The Facebook account Jabali Junior Sultana has been running promotions in a Facebook group in Kenya with over 119,000 members.
The account uses the screen name and photo of prominent Tanzanian actor Othman Njaidi, who also goes by the name Patrick Kanumba. He plays the lead character, Jabali Junior, in Kenya’s popular TV drama series Sultana.
The account posts simple questions to the Facebook group and asks users to respond and receive money.
One of its posts , dated 13 July 2023 reads: “1. School fee 2. Rent 3. Business 4. Hospital bills 5. Transport Taja yenye umelemewa kulipa ili upate sahuu kwa hii namba 07_774_733_94.”
This translates as: “1. School fee 2. Rent 3. Business 4. Hospital bills 5. Transport; Mention the one thing you are unable to pay for so that you can receive it, on this number 07_774_733_94.”
Another post from 11 July 2023 reads: “Mbali na Sultana nitajie jina la Mwingizaji mmoja wa kipindi cha sultana Upate ksh 65,000 award!!”
This loosely translates as: “Other than Sultana, mention the name of any other actor or actress in the Sultana series and get a KSh65,000 reward!!”
But is this Facebook account and what it's offering legitimate? We checked.
Fake Facebook account
We contacted the number mentioned in the WhatsApp posts.
The person on the other end introduced themselves as “Sarah Hassan”, while the Facebook account claims to belong to Njaidi.
The Kenyan actor Sarah Hassan starred in another popular drama series called Zora.
Questions about Zora followed, including what channel we had watched the show on, what time the show aired, and whether we liked the show.
After answering these questions the person told us that we had won KSh45,000 but that we should pay KSh599 as the registration fee so that we could receive our reward.
If you are asked to pay in order to receive your winnings, this is a clear sign that a competition or promotion is run by a scammer.
We looked at Njaidi's Instagram account, which has over 289,000 followers, and found no offers like those on the suspicious Facebook account. He only posts photos and TV shows he appears in.
Read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them to avoid falling victim to online fraud.
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