Crime

Fact Check: Fake Giveaways On Twitter

Published

3 years ago

January 21, 2021

Mandy

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Some verified Twitter accounts are promising ridiculous giveaways from celebrities and impersonating them through fake accounts. These daily promising tweets are a scam designed to get users to trending hashtags and to share personal or bank information.

Anonymous self-proclaimed influencer impersonating singer Chidinma Ekile (archived here ) has the description: “50k sent successfully to two winners via dm. Picking more now, keep engaging so you can be noticed”

Below a controversial hashtag was created by a page called “@chidinmaekile” (What bill do you need help with right now? Retweet & Add #DavidolsBetterThanWizkid to your replies. I am checking.). It was created in November. 15, 2020 and had 191 comments, 47 retweet and 96 likes at the time of publishing.

The page that started the hashtag also gave room to another celebrity fake account who also tweeted multiple times, asking users to retweet and comment the hashtag. One comment from the page reads: “Retweet & Add #DavidolsBetterThanWizkid to your replies. I am checking. CHECK YOUR INBOX”

The official Twitter page for Chidinma can be seen https://twitter.com/OfficialMissKDK. A Twitter user said; “Chidimma Ekile, Mz Kedike has been saying her Twitter account was hacked.
The hacker(s) have been chasing clout with giveaways and hashtags.” This can be seen here.

The caption of the account always urges users to make a comment that is specific, such as seeking for account details. An example of this can be seen archived here:

When Mandy News reporter, Collins WeGlobe tried forensic image analysis on the payment alert images, they were all photoshopped and we found out that all the giveaways were fake.

Other celebrities whose account have been used by impersonator pages on Twitter include Wale Adenuga, Aisha Yesufu, B Red and 2 Baba.

Fake giveaways are all over Twitter and it’s a common misconception that they are “not bad” or “just for fun”. This article shows you the harm caused by taking part!

A question and answer made available at the Yahoo website it’s about these fake giveaways here. The answer explains “Yes, it is illegal to fake giveaways. It falls generally under fraud. It will cost you money, fraud is criminal, it will cost you time.”

Reddit also has a similar question and answer which says hosting a fake giveaway is a felony here.