Hoax: This website offering rewards for Google users is fake
The website does not belong to Google, and it redirects users to a site that harvests their personal information.
A website claiming that Google is rewarding users of its search engine with Ksh32 million is FALSE.
According to the site, the search engine randomly selects IP addresses of users and then, working in association with partners and sponsors, gives out rewards. Selected users are required to answer three questions on how satisfied they are with Google in order to claim their reward.
Answering the questions opens up a page with a message that the gift will be given to another Google user if one does not click on the ‘claim now’ button before the countdown times out.
Once this is done, the user is redirected to another website that prompts them to choose the mobile operator they use and to submit their mobile numbers through which a winner support agent will get in touch.
The WHOIS information of the first site with the promotion (trafficlnd.club) shows that it was registered on 28th November 2019, while the second website it redirects to (winstatuscheck.net) was registered on 16th September 2019.
WHOIS details of the first promotional site
WHOIS information of the second site the user is redirected to
However, the terms and conditions on the site winstatuscheck.net appear to be unrelated to the promotion in question and contain a disclaimer that the website is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of the companies associated with the prizes. It also indicates that the promotion is an international giveaway that anyone can take part by calling a phone number. However, no number has been provided.
Additionally, the promotion is not featured on Google’s website.
When contacted by PesaCheck for comment, Google’s Head of Communications and Public Affairs for Sub-Saharan Africa, Dorothy Ooko, stated that the promotion was fake, and that they were aware of attempts by scammers to use the Google brand to defraud unsuspecting individuals.
Google has identified a number of scams that have fraudulently used the company’s name, and has outlined ways that users can avoid and report them.
The scam in question looks like a variation of the Google Pop-up Scam, which offers users a prize if they answer several questions to get a reward.
The Google Scams page states that the company does not offer spontaneous prizes in this format, and that there is no prize for completing any such surveys or entering personal information. It advises users to close any pop-up windows that contain this scam, and not to enter any personal information on these websites.
PesaCheck has looked into a website claiming that Google is rewarding users Kshs32 million and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by Fact-Checker Simon Muli and edited by Enock Nyariki
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organisations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
