Hoax: A claim that Safaricom is giving Ksh. 3400 cash to its customers is a scam

Hoax: A claim that Safaricom is giving Ksh. 3400 to its customers is a scam.

The telecommunications company has distanced itself from the promotion.

A WhatsApp message claiming that Safaricom is giving its customers Ksh. 3,400 as a new gift is a HOAX.

The post written in English, says that Safaricom has officially announced a Ksh. 3,400 New Year gift with nine days of participation starting from January 1st to 9th 2021.

According to the post, only those who have been selected and had used Safaricom M-Pesa services  within the last 12 months are the ones who are eligible to receive the cash gift straight to their M-Pesa for free.

A link is attached for customers to check if they are among the selected cash prize winners.

The link leads to a Safaricom New Year gift website where participants are asked to enter their phone numbers to check if they are among the selected 6,000 candidates to receive the reward.

However, participants are further instructed to share the post to 12 groups on WhatsApp in order to receive the 3,400 cash gift with a promise that the money will be sent to their mobile numbers in 3 minutes. This raises a red flag about the authenticity of the alleged promotion.

The link appears to be clickbait; no money is received and no information is provided on how to get the cash prize once the message is shared to the 12 WhatsApp groups.

The telecommunication company has cautioned its customers against sharing their personal information with fraudsters purporting to Safaricom PLC.

Sky FM has looked into the claim that Safaricom Company is giving customers who have used M-Pesa services over the last 12 months Ksh. 3,400 and finds it to be false.

This message is brought to you by Sky fm in collaboration with Code For Africa’s iLab Data Journalism Program supported by DW Akademie