A Facebook page calling itself “Higher Education Loan Board” is trying to fleece Kenyan university students.
The page shows the genuine logo of the Higher Educations Loans Board, the government agency that provides loans to poor university students.
But the page was set up on 1 March 2018 and has posted multiple messages unrelated to the work of the student loans’ agency.
A post published on 2 December 2021 is an appeal for money, telling the story of a student who apparently contracted the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea after being raped. The post asks the public to help raise KSh15,000 for treatment.
Other posts have announced the sale of a laptop and offered writing services for academic proposals, projects and CVs.
Africa Check has previously exposed other fake Facebook pages mimicking various organisations in the country.
Beware of fake education loans board pages
The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has posted a warning about pages like this and listed its official social media handles from which Kenyan students should get help.
The board shared a screenshot of a private Facebook group called “Higher Education Loans Board (HELB)” and stamped it “FAKE”.
“Kaa radar. Beware of fake HELB Pages. Only seek information from the genuine HELB Social media platforms - Facebook [@HELBPage] and Twitter [@HELBPage],” it said.
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