IN SHORT: Africa Check has investigated many fake money-making schemes. This Facebook account impersonating popular Nigerian musician Peter Okoye’s lottery platform is yet another scam.
"WELCOME TO ZOOMLIFESTYLE Everyday is Winning day once you are okoye Peter fans," reads a post on the Facebook page zoom winners.
On 11 June 2023, the post asked Nigerians to hurry up and purchase their zoom tickets. It said: "Click on the link below to make your registration your self through the website."
The post features a video of Peter Okoye, the Nigerian musician also known as Mr P, talking to one of the winners from his privately owned lottery platform Zoom Lifestyle.
Okoye and his twin brother, Paul, are also in the singing duo P-Square.
The post includes a WhatsApp link and the video has been viewed over 450 times. To entice users, some of the comments on the post are made by accounts posting similar schemes on their pages.
We also found similar posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
But is the page “zoom winners” and its posts really affiliated with Okoye’s lottery?
Zoom Lifestyle and scammers
Zoom Lifestyle is a lottery platform owned by Okoye. It gives away millions of naira in cash, as well as prizes such as concert tickets and business mentorship.
The Zoom Lifestyle website explains how to enter the lottery, either by using a particular code if you’re an MTN, 9Mobile or Airtel cellular customer or by registering on the website.
On 15 November 2022, the official Facebook page for the platform warned users not to fall for scams using Okoye’s name and old videos.
It posted: “Zoomlifestyle is not an investment company but a lottery company; we do not have any manager, and Zoomlifestyle is not on WhatsApp. All tickets are purchased directly from our website at www.zoomlifestyle.com and not by making payment into any personal account. @peterpsquare no longer call winners via video calls as a result of the increase in the rate of scammers using his previous videos/pictures to deceive people.”
The official Facebook page has over 50,000 followers. The page zoom winners has only three, and other pages similar to it have no followers at all or less than 50 followers.
Okoye was the face of the platform until July 2022 when he announced he was resigning from “anchoring or presenting” because of fraudsters.
He lamented how some Facebook accounts were using old videos of him in order to defraud Nigerians.
Scammers were arrested in Lagos in April 2023 for defrauding a woman of N1,500,000 by impersonating Okoye.
The fact-checking organisation Dubawa reported how fraudsters had duped Nigerians using Facebook and WhatsApp.
Peter Okoye warns Nigerians
The popular musician said in an 11 June 2023 post that he didn’t “own or have any GIVEAWAY platform” and had no WhatsApp number.
He warned his followers to be careful of those impersonating him on Facebook: "So many fake pages here on Facebook pretending to be me! They will Scam you oh! #ScamAlert"
In another post, he said Zoom Lifestyle was not an investment platform, but a lottery company.
Africa Check has exposed several Facebook accounts falsely claiming to offer money-making opportunities to Nigerians. This is, like them, a scam.
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