Nigeria: Scam Alert! Ignore Fake Channels Television Facebook Account Asking You to Invest

28 June 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Muktar Balogun

Bold Gains investment platform shows no signs of being trustworthy, despite claims made online. This time the platform is being promoted by yet another scam Facebook account, impersonating broadcaster Channels Television.

The Facebook page Channels Nigeria TV promises to help Nigerians double their money within an hour.

The account uses the name and logo of media organisation Channels Television and claims Bold Gains investment platform is reliable.

Part of its post, dated 24 June 2023, reads: "BOLDGAINS INVESTMENT KEEP TO THEIR PROMISED YOUR INVESTMENT HERE IS 100% SURE OF YOUR INVESTMENT NO SCAM NO DELAY OF YOUR PAYMENT."

The post features a video of Nollywood actor Patience Ozokwo and another woman appearing to give financial advice.

The video has been viewed over 500 times and has over 90 comments.

We found similar messages and videos promoting the scheme here, here, here, here, here and here.

But do Bold Gains and the posts by Channels Nigeria TV offer legitimate investment advice and opportunities? We checked.

Fake Channels Television account

The fact that the posts are badly written raised our suspicions, as the Channels Television is a popular broadcaster in Nigeria staffed by professional journalists and editors.

We also noticed that the page was relatively new.

It also has one follower compared to the official Channels account, which has over 4 million followers. We found accounts with hundreds of followers making similar claims, such as this one.

The official Facebook page of the Nigerian broadcaster is Channels Television and is verified by Meta.

We've exposed several accounts impersonating media houses to promote investment schemes in June 2023, and started to suspect these posts were more of the same.

Reported scams

A Lagos-based retired person was scammed by the Bold Gains investment platform, according to the Foundation for Investigative Journalism. The retiree reportedly lost N132,000 (US$167 at the exchange rate in June 2023) to the scheme.

We also found another complaint against Bold Gains on a popular online forum, Nairaland. The author claims N1.2 million was taken from him. These accusations are further evidence that these Facebook posts should be ignored.

To help protect yourself against online scams, read 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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