Kenya: Beware of Yet Another Facebook Account Running Fake Promotions in the Name of Popular Tanzanian Actor Othman Njaidi

3 August 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Dancan Bwire

IN SHORT: Scammers often use the names of prominent people to try to fraudulently obtain money from Facebook users. This is the case with this Facebook account impersonating actor Othman Jabali, who plays Jabali Junior in the popular Kenyan TV drama Sultana.

The Facebook account Jibali JJ Junior Sultana offers Facebook users thousands of Kenyan shillings in its promotions.

The account uses the screen name and photo of prominent Tanzanian actor Othman Njaidi, who also goes by the name Patrick Kanumba.

Njaidi plays the lead character, Jabali Junior, in Kenya's popular TV drama series Sultana. The show aired on Citizen TV, a privately owned station with national reach.

One of the account's posts, dated 19 July 2023, reads: "Find the missing numbers and get KSh35,000 #LUNCH promotion: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18,20."

Similar posts were published here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

On 25 July, Africa Check debunked a similar Facebook account in the actor's name offering fake promotions.

Is this another scam? We checked.

Fake account and offers

The posts in the account follow similar patterns as those we have debunked before, promising thousands of Kenyan shillings to users who answer simple questions or perform easy tasks.

They often ask users to identify missing numbers or mention English words starting with particular letters to win.

They also follow the same trend of asking users to reach out privately to claim their rewards, after which users are told to pay a "registration" or "unlocking" fee before receiving the "gift". This is usually a clear attempt at a scam.

We nevertheless reached out via Facebook Messenger to confirm our fears. The account told us that we had won but we should pay an "unlocking fee" to receive the cash. This is a sign this promotion and this account is run by a scammer.

No such promotions have been posted on Njaidi's Instagram account, which has over 292,000 followers.

The account and the offers are fake.

Read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them to avoid falling victim to online fraud.

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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