IN SHORT: Sarah Hassan is one of the most popular actors in the Kenyan entertainment industry. But she is not running promotions on Facebook and promising users large amounts of money.
The Facebook accounts Zora Citizen Tvv and Zora Actress Citizen Ke are running promotions on Facebook groups, promising users easy cash prizes.
The accounts use the stage name and photos of Kenyan actor Sarah Hassan. Hassan played the main character, Zora, in Kenya’s popular TV drama series of the same name. The show aired on Citizen TV, a privately owned station with a nationwide reach.
The promotions vary, with some asking users to identify English words or names containing specific letters of the alphabet to win. The accounts then congratulate those who comment and ask them to get in touch via WhatsApp to be awarded.
The accounts have posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But are these Facebook accounts and their offers legit? We checked.
Signs of fake Facebook accounts
The poor writing in the posts, including misspellings and odd punctuation, is the first sign that they are scams.
Facebook allows public figures to verify their pages on the platform. These pages then carry a “blue tick” verification badge.
The actor’s official Facebook page, Sarah Hassan, is verified, while the accounts offering these promotions are not. We also found no promotions on Hassan’s official page.
It is unlikely that the actor would have unverified accounts to run these promotions.
The Facebook accounts reach out to those who comment and ask them to engage privately to get their rewards. But this is usually an attempt to scam unsuspecting users.
All signs point to fake Facebook accounts with scam offers.
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