IN SHORT: This Facebook page promises cash rewards to people in Kenya willing to join the Illuminati. But beware, it is just another fake page making use of a well-known type of fraud.
The Facebook page Margret illuminati KENYA promises users as much as KSh70,000 in cash rewards if they join the Illuminati.
Its posts feature piles of Kenyan money, cars and local celebrities, sometimes all three, presumably to entice users.
The Illuminati is a popular conspiracy theory that has been described by Vox news as “shadowy cabals that supposedly control the world”. The BBC has also discussed it at length, calling it “the conspiracy theory to dwarf all conspiracy theories”.
In Kenya, “Illuminati” refers to what is believed to be a network of rich devil worshippers, often thought to practise human sacrifice in return for wealth.
The page requires those interested to make a reverse call. This is a service by Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms company, that allows a customer to make a call with or without airtime and the receiver of the call pays on the caller’s behalf.
But is it a legit deal? We checked.
Common scam in Kenya
The term “Illuminati” is widely misunderstood in Kenya. Scammers often take advantage of the misconceptions surrounding it to convince those in financial difficulties that they can become rich overnight.
There are several clues that the page is fake and its activities are not to be trusted.
Its “page transparency” section shows it was created on 15 January 2023 under the category “beauty, cosmetic and personal care”. This is suspicious as its main business appears to be to convince users to join the Illuminati.
While a professional organisation would normally have its social media account linked to a website, the Facebook page in question is not linked to any.
The page relies on images downloaded from the social media accounts of celebrities like Kenyan comedian Henry Desagu to run its activities. But none of them have ever publicly said they were members of Illuminati or that it was their source of wealth.
The page’s adverts are poorly written, often containing glaring grammatical errors and misspelt words, signalling they are not from a legit source.
We reached out to the page requesting to join and were asked to pay KSh666 as a compulsory registration fee. This is a clear sign of a scam.
Africa Check has debunked similar pages here, here and here. To protect yourself against online scams, read our guide on how to spot them here.
Republish our content for free
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Add new comment