IN SHORT: Citizen TV is one of Kenya’s most watched television stations. But it is not running promotions on Facebook giving users thousands of shillings in cash.
“Mama John ako na watoto, tano ,, Tata,Tete,Titi,Toto. mtoto wa tano ni nani. Jibu ujishindie 35,000. Sasa hivi,” reads a message posted across Facebook groups by the Facebook account Citizen Gifts. The account features graphics from Citizen TV Kenya.
This translates as: “John's mother has five kids, Tata, Tete, Titi and Toto. What's the name of the fifth child? Answer and win yourself KSh35,000 now.”
This simple riddle is just one example of many suspicious promotions run by the account and flagged by Facebook as potentially false.
The account congratulates those who comment and asks them to get in touch via WhatsApp to be awarded.
The account also posts photos of wads of cash, presumably to entice users.
The promotions have been published here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But are the promotions legit and run by the TV station? We checked.
Fake account and offers
The posts from the account are badly written, even missing basic punctuations. This is the first sign users are dealing with a scam.
We checked for the offers on the verified official Citizen TV Kenya Facebook page, which has over 6.9 million followers, and came up empty.
The fact that the account asks users to engage privately on WhatsApp is also suspicious and likely an attempt to scam.
All signs point to a fake Facebook account with scam offers.
To help protect yourself against online fraudsters, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
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