Nigeria: Beware! Facebook Posts Impersonating Opera News Nigeria Are Out to Take Your Money

13 July 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Muktar Balogun

IN SHORT: Africa Check has exposed several Facebook accounts falsely claiming to offer investment services. These posts, claiming to represent Rolvi Trading, have also been dismissed by the company as false.

A post on Facebook claims to offer investment opportunities for Nigerians in a "networking program" for the "less privileges" under the name "Rolvi Trading".

The 30 June 2023 post reads, in part: "It's an investment platform were you get (2x)-two times of what you invest, We're just using it to assist the citizens of the country's for the betterment of life and future, It's a newly launched in nigeria and it's really paying."

The post is published by an account called Opera New Nigeria which uses the logo of Opera News, a mobile news application that allows users to follow trending news topics.

The post includes a video of a man promoting "Crowd1", a scam Africa Check has debunked. The video has been viewed more than 1,400 times. Some of the comments to the post ask for more information.

The post also includes a link to messaging service WhatsApp.

An almost identical post was published on 8 July and attracted over 100 comments within a few days. Similar posts here and here repeat almost identical messages.

Africa Check has exposed several Facebook accounts falsely claiming to offer investment opportunities to Nigerians. And Crowd1 has been debunked by both Africa Check and fellow fact-checking organisation Dubawa.

But is this scheme by the page Opera New Nigeria real?

Opera News has big reach

The page is named Opera New Nigeria, but the platform is known as Opera News with its Nigerian branch Opera News Nigeria. This is an indication that the page posting about Rolvi Trading and "Crowd 1" is not genuine.

The suspicious account has only one follower and was created on 30 June. By comparison, what appears to be the official Opera News Nigeria account is followed by over 140,000 people and was set up in January 2019.

Rolvi Trading: a smokescreen

Rolvi Trading is a real company specialising in trading across a variety of markets. The Facebook link found on the company's website did not link to an actual account, but we could click through to the company's Twitter and Whatsapp handles.

We reached out to Rolvi Trading and the company said it had nothing to do with the Facebook posts. It told potential investors to disregard them. "We offer long term business plans," a representative told Africa Check.

Africa Check has previously investigated similar false investment schemes here.

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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