IN SHORT: You can't earn thousands of Kenyan shillings by answering simple questions on social media. Don’t fall for this trick used by scammers on Facebook.
The Facebook account Jota Jonnes has offered thousands of Kenyan shillings to users who answer simple questions posted on two Facebook groups, with a joint membership of over 487,000 people.
Some of the account’s posts feature photos of married Kenyan journalists Rashid Abdalla and Lulu Hassan, perhaps to attract more users. The two are prominent news anchors for Kenyan channel Citizen TV.
The account often posts a list of numbers and asks users to identify the missing ones.
For instance, a 27 July 2023 post reads: “MORNING PROMOTION Sasa hivi 35, 000. Find the missing numbers.1,2,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. Watu 190.”
This mix of English and Kiswahili translates to: “KSh35,000 is up for grabs now. Find the missing numbers among 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. We need 190 people.”
The promotions have been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But is the Facebook account and its promotions legit? We checked.
Common scam in Kenya
The promise to award users with large amounts of cash just for answering simple questions sounds too good to be true. The amount to be won does not match the minimal effort required to win it.
It is also unlikely that anyone would award 190 people KSh35,000 each, on a daily basis, just for finding a missing number from a short list. That’s a whopping total of KSh6,650,000, approximately US$46,661.
We checked the comment section and noted that the account congratulates those who respond and asks them to reach out on WhatsApp.
Africa Check messaged the WhatsApp number and were told to deposit a KSh499 “unlocking fee” in order to receive the KSh35,000 “reward”. This is a clear indication that this is a scam account.
This is a common trick used by scammers in Kenya. Africa Check has debunked them before, including here, here and here.
To help protect yourself against online fraudsters, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
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