The spate at which fraudsters rampage to defraud innocent people is quite unbecoming, necessitating this alarm to enable everyone stay wary and safe especially as we battle with the post COVID-19 economic recovery.
These are some of the recent gimmicks employed by fraudsters to swindle unsuspecting Nigerians:
1. COVID-19 Relief Fund:
Even at the harsh economic downturn on Nigerians as result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, some unscrupulous individuals are bent on using the pandemic to play down on unsuspecting individual especially by mimicking Federal Government initiatives to defraud people.
There has been a recent google form going round as in the picture below:
The Federal Government has not and will not ask anyone to fill a Google form in order to benefit from its COVID-19 economic recovery plans.
Federal Government does not use schematic approaches for data collection if the need be rather uses a well built official website .gov.ng domain name for data collection, and it will be officially announced widely using the media.
Filling the form in the picture above is an exposure to data phishing. When your bio/account data is taken by fraudsters, you will begin to recieve unwarranted calls/texts/mails asking you for more information that would enable them penetrate your bank account. Be very watchful.
Other fraudulent formats imitating government plans and programs are:
2. Betting Scam:
Football betting is the rave of the moment for many youths nowadays. Many fraudsters have deviced strategies of promoting a 'fixed match/odd or 'Sure Games' in high odds of Correct Score, Half Time/Full Time etc, to penetrate the greed of victims for a purchase of such 'mega blow' Matches as below:
Listen very attentively, they are all predictions and 98% likely to fail. Match Fixing is as rare as a hair in the Palm as it is seriously against the law of football and such teams can be banned.
In football betting, even the owners of the websites, the allogrith running the websites wants you to loose, so they tighten all corners and you only win by chances. You only play at your own risk so do not let anyone deceive you.
3: MTN Promo:
There is this circulating link mainly through Whatsapp for MTN free data, customer reward promo etc as below:
The website embedded in the link shortner is https://mtngift.me/ which is not an official MTN website nor could any corporate organizations use such a domain for anything, not even for meeting invitation within such organisation.
Fraudsters know any fraud format will last only but a moment. So they leverage on free domains or very cheap unusual domains in which the website will be shallowly designed without an About us page or Contact Page.
If MTN has a promo, they will not only advertise it through their official social handles and website but also through Google and Facebook ads.
4: Money Ritual Connection:
Every moment I see this on Facebook, it makes me ponder if money ritual is something to be advertised or promoted.
The format is simple to understand by any sharp individual. It's all about asking you for service fee for the connection, purchase of materials and others. If you send the money, they will block you forever on Facebook.
These few release are just preambles if I may say, just watch out for the part two and bigger scams exposure.
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