IN SHORT: This Facebook account in the name of Kenyan actor Ronald Ndubi is offering as much as KSh35,000 cash in its promotions. But it is an imposter account trying to scam Kenyans.
The Facebook account Victor Wa Maria frequently posts promotions on Facebook groups in Kenya with thousands of members.
The account uses the stage name and photo of prominent Kenyan actor Ronald Ndubi. Ndubi played the character Victor Hausa in Kenya’s popular TV drama series Maria.
To lure users, the account’s posts feature photos of local celebrities and politicians.
The topics covered in its posts are wide ranging, from asking users to name their favourite TV anchors to asking them to wish different Kenyan actors happy birthday, all in order to win KSh35,000. The account compliments those who comment and asks them to get in touch on WhatsApp.
Posts have been published by the account here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But is the account run by the actor? We checked.
Registration fee scam
The poor writing in the posts, including misspellings and odd punctuation, is the first sign that they are scams.
Besides, the promotions are too good to be true. It is unlikely that the actor would give away large sums of money to strangers on Facebook for simple tasks such as typing happy birthday messages to various celebrities.
The account asks users to send a private message to claim their rewards. Africa Check sent a message to the WhatsApp number provided and were asked to pay a “registration” fee of KSh198 to receive the money. This is a clear attempt to scam users.
None of these promotions feature on actor Ndubi’s verified Instagram account.
The account and its promotions are fake.
Africa Check has previously debunked a Facebook account impersonating the actor and running similar promotions.
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