IN SHORT: MTN is not rewarding old SIM card owners with free data. The supposed promotion has been doing the rounds in several African countries.
Mobile network operator MTN is rewarding owners of old SIM cards with free data, according to a promotion posted on Facebook.
A SIM card, also known as a subscriber identity module, is a smart card that stores identification information that links a phone to a specific mobile network.
The post says those with a SIM card that is six months old will receive 5 gigabytes (GB) of data, while those with a SIM card that is one year and older will receive 10GB.
MTN is a major mobile telecommunications company, operating in several African, European and Asian countries.
This post has also been published here and here.
But is MTN really rewarding old SIM customers with free data bundles?
Engagement bait scam
The link in the Facebook post takes you to a page where you can enter your personal details.
After clicking on the link, customers need to enter their MTN phone number to check if their SIM card is eligible for this offer. The next step is to enter the age of their SIM card.
In the final step, the customer is asked to share the link with five groups or 15 friends on WhatsApp in order to activate the free data.
This is an engagement bait scam. This means the more people who do this, the greater the reach of the link.
Ignore fake promotion
On its official Twitter account, MTN Uganda described the promotion as "FAKE".
"Y'ello guys, please beware of scammers. This message doing the rounds on WhatsApp is fake. #Beerasteady, Be better," MTN Uganda wrote.
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