IN SHORT: A Facebook page that claims to be running a phone giveaway by Nokia is a scam and not affiliated to the Nokia brand. The page uses a tactic called engagement bait to persuade people to engage with its posts to boost its visibility.
A Facebook page called N0kia Fellow Ph0ne Dashing Time shared a post in May 2023 that has since garnered over 1,800 comments and over 4,200 shares.
Circulating in Nigeria and South Africa, the post claims that Nokia is giving away thousands of the latest cell phones.
It starts by saying: “N0KIA HOT GIVEAWAY Make sure you apply for this Nokia giveaway Nokia is here to bless thousand of people with Latest phones and more Guess what?, you could win more than 3 pieces of this phones.”
It then tells users to type out the letters of the word "Nokia" in separate messages in the comment section, without being interrupted by another “competitor”.
Facebook users are also asked to send a direct message to the page once this has been done.
Nokia is a telecommunications company that makes electronic products, including cell phones.
Although the profile picture used by the "N0kia Fellow Ph0ne Dashing Time" page is of a Nokia cell phone, is the page associated with the multinational brand?
We checked.
No signs of massive giveaway on Nokia’s official social media platforms
Nokia’s official website includes a link to its Facebook page, which is called Nokia. The page has about 12 million followers.
When you visit the Nokia Facebook page’s About section, the Page Transparency information shows that it was created on 30 October 2008.
By comparison, the N0kia Fellow Ph0ne Dashing Time page was created on 28 May 2023. It had only 405 followers at time of publication.
With posts promising that Nokia is giving away thousands of its latest phones, you would expect a competition announcement to appear on Nokia’s official social media platforms. But there are no announcements about any giveaway there.
This makes it unlikely that this giveaway is legitimate.
Signs of engagement bait
The competition entry described in the post shows evidence of it being engagement bait.
According to Meta, the company which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, engagement bait involves making people like, share and comment on your post in order to increase the post or page’s reach. These tactics are spammy and inauthentic.
Signs of this in the post are the request for users to type out the letters of the word "Nokia" in separate messages and to repeat the exercise if they are "interrupted by another competitor".
A request to message the page is another sign of engagement bait.
Poor writing tell-tale sign of a scam
Africa Check has written about Facebook scams many times in the past, and the N0kia Fellow Ph0ne Dashing Time giveaway post shows tell-tale signs of a scam.
One of the most obvious is that the post contains several grammatical errors, in phrases such as "Nokia is here to bless thousand of people with Latest phones" and "3 pieces of this phones".
This should immediately raise suspicion about the page’s authenticity and association with Nokia.
Page’s follow-up post unrelated to Nokia
Although the page’s name associates it with Nokia, another post, from 6 June 2023, is unrelated to Nokia phones. It is a repost from another page and promises followers money, food, and job opportunities if they send a message to the page, which was created only a day earlier.
This is clearly another scam. Ignore all posts associated with the N0kia Fellow Ph0ne Dashing Time page.
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