Kenya: Beware of Facebook Page Impersonating Kenyan's Examinations Council and Offering Bogus Services

7 June 2024
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Tess Wandia

Beware of Facebook page impersonating Kenyan's examinations council and offering bogus services

IN SHORT: A Facebook page using the name of Kenya's examinations council claims to provide several services for the 2024 national examinations. But be warned, it is run by a scammer.

The Facebook page KENYA National Examination Council offers various services to Kenyans, including mark upgrades, certificate processing and error correction.

The page uses the logo of Kenya's National Examinations Council (KNEC), which oversees high school, tertiary and other exams.

The page links to a group invite on the instant messaging platform WhatsApp. The group is titled "Urgent documentation/KCSE/KCPE examinations 2024 platform, KNEC marks upgrade".

The KCPE is the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education offered to students in their eighth year of primary school. The KCSE is the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education offered to students in their fourth year of secondary school.

Desperate users have flooded the comments section of the page's posts, asking how they can access the services.

But is the page and its posts to be trusted? We checked.

Imposter page

The "page transparency" section shows that it was created in May 2024. This is the first red flag, as Kenya's examinations council has been operating since 2012.

Another red flag is the name spelling - "examination council" should be "examinations council". Additionally, in the "contact and basic info" section, the page links to a WhatsApp group instead of the official KNEC website.

In May 2024, the council posted a screenshot of a post from the page with the words "fake" printed across it in red.

The page is fake and should be ignored.

To protect yourself from online fraudsters, read Africa Check's 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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