IN SHORT: There are many Facebook pages offering loans to users. Unfortunately, not all are genuine. Pages like this one asking for a “registration” or “unlocking” fee before the loan is “processed” should be avoided.
The Facebook page Lipia mdogo is offering loans of between KSh5,000 and KSh500,000 to Kenyans.
It urges users to apply for what it calls “lipa mdogo mdogo loan”. This is Kiswahili for “loans to be paid in small instalments”.
The loan offers have been posted on different dates here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
We checked the comment section and noted that dozens of users had asked about the application process.
But is the page and its offers genuine? We checked.
Another fake Facebook page with scam offers
A reputable financial institution would normally have a functioning website and a professionally run Facebook page. But this page’s website – lipiamdogo.com – does not open. Its posts are repeated and have blurred images.
One image that seems to be a screenshot of a loan disbursement to a user indicates that the money came from Inua Jamii, the Kenyan government programme that gives cash grants to poor and vulnerable people. But this is false since the programme does not issue loans.
We reached out to the page and asked if we could get a loan of KSh5,000. We were asked to pay a “registration fee” of KSh250.
This request is consistent with those made by other fake Facebook pages meant to defraud unsuspecting people. Genuine loan offers from legitimate financial institutions don’t require this.
All signs point to a fake Facebook page with scam offers.
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