Kenya: No, Kenyan Actor Ronald Ndubi Not Offering Promotions On Facebook, Beware of Imposter Account

19 April 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Dancan Bwire

IN SHORT: Another day, another fake Facebook page, this time in the name of popular Kenyan actor Ronald Ndubi. Ignore sham posts by this account.

The Facebook page Victor Hausa has been running promotions on a Facebook group in Kenya with over 235,000 members.

The account uses the stage name and photo of prominent Kenyan actor Ronald Ndubi. Ndubi played the character Victor Hausa in Kenya's popular TV drama series Maria.

The account posts simple queries and tasks on the Facebook group and asks users to respond to win cash.

One of its posts, dated 4 April 2023, asks users to identify the number of letters "F" among several letters "E" to stand a chance of winning KSh98,000 instantly.

In other posts, it has asked users to wish different Kenyan actors happy birthday. It then compliments those who comment and asks them to get in touch on WhatsApp.

There are different types of posts published by the account here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. All promise rewards if users engage.

But is this Facebook account and its offers legit? We checked.

Fake Facebook account

There is no activity on the account's timeline but it has numerous posts on the Facebook group. This is a red flag since it usually shows the account was created solely for posting suspicious promotions.

The promotions are also too good to be true. It is unlikely that the actor would give away large sums of money for such simple tasks on social media.

To learn more about the account, we texted the word "happy birthday" to the WhatsApp number provided, just as other users were instructed in one of the posts.

We were immediately asked to deposit KSh695 for us to win KSh98,000. Suspiciously, the message identifies the texter as Brian Ogana, a different Kenyan actor altogether. Ogana played lead character Luwi Hausa in the same drama. This is unlikely to be him either.

None of these promotions feature on either Ndubi or Ogana social media accounts.

The account and its promotions are fake.

To protect yourself against scams, see our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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