IN SHORT: Popular Nigerian artist Davido recently welcomed twins, but there is no evidence for claims that he is giving away airtime and data to celebrate. Beware of engagement bait posts, which can be harmful in several ways.
Popular Nigerian musician David Adeleke, better known as Davido, recently welcomed twins less than a year after the death of his son.
Posts on Facebook in Nigeria claim that he is giving away airtime and data to celebrate the birth of his twins.
One post reads: “*DAVIDO NEW BORN TWINS CELEBRATION* Davido is giving out *₦5,000* Airtime and *10GB* free data to his fans in celebration of his new born twins.”
But are these offers genuine and from the musician? We checked.
Ignore engagement bait posts
There are signs the offers are not genuine. We couldn’t find any of them on Davido’s verified Facebook and Instagram accounts.
We clicked on all the links for the different mobile networks mentioned in one of the posts, but they were dead links.
Another version of the message directs users to forward the message to different WhatsApp groups.
This is an example of engagement bait – an approach that increases the reach of a message by encouraging users to comment, like and share. The more people do this, the more the message spreads.
Engagement bait is harmful in several ways, including promoting low-quality content, undermining trust in companies and spreading misinformation.
To learn more about identifying online scams and to avoid falling for them, read our guide on how to spot them here.
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