IN SHORT: A Facebook post is promoting “Sure Grace Investment” and says the platform offers users a chance to double their money. But there’s no record of the company on Nigeria’s business registry.
A Facebook post is encouraging users to grow their money through a “wonderful” investment platform called Sure Grace.
The 20 October 2023 post reads: “THIS HOW IT WORKS, IT IS A PROCSS WHEREBY YOU PAY A CERTAIN AMOUNT TO THEM AND AFTER 45MINUTES THEY WOULD PAY YOU DOUBLE. I PAID 50,000 AND THEY PAID ME 100,000.”
The poorly written post provides a WhatsApp link for users who are interested in investing in the platform. Perhaps to convince users of the platform’s legitimacy, the post also features screenshots of what appears to be proof of payment from “Sure Grace Investment Platform”.
We also found similar posts here, here and here.
But is the investment platform legit? We checked.
Signs of a scam
The investment platform appears to have no online presence – no website and no official social media accounts. We would expect a legitimate business to have a functioning website and verified social media accounts where it engages with customers.
The promise of high profits in no time, in this case double the investment in just 45 minutes, is a sign that the platform can’t be trusted. Such a business is unsustainable.
The post asks potential investors to reach out to “admin” via WhatsApp. This is another red flag as scammers often use this method to steal users’ personal information.
We clicked on the WhatApp link provided and it led us to an account apparently in the name of “HON IDRIS IBRAHIM”. We were also prompted with an automated message to initiate the conversation: “GOOD DAY SIR AM INTERESTED IN THE OPAY INVESTMENT PLATFORM HOW CAN SOMEONE INVEST NOW???”
This is suspicious because the Facebook post makes no mention of OPay Investment Platform. Africa Check has previously investigated Facebook posts and accounts using OPay’s name here and here, and found them to be scams. OPay is a mobile money platform headquartered in Nigeria.
Africa Check searched for “Sure Grace Investment” on Nigeria's business registry and came up empty. This is a sign that it might be operating without a licence, or simply doesn’t exist.
Click here to read our guide on how to protect yourself from online scams.
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