IN SHORT: Mambo Mseto, hosted by Willy M Tuva, is one of the most popular shows on Radio Citizen. But beware of accounts that use the show’s name to run fake promotions.
The Facebook account Mambo Mseto Citizen is running promotions on Facebook and promising Kenyans at least KSh35,000 for participating.
The account uses the name of Mambo Mseto, an entertainment radio show on Kenya’s Radio Citizen. The show is hosted by Willy M Tuva, a Kenyan radio presenter.
One of its posts, dated 14 November 2023, reads: “MORNING PROMOTION now for KSH.35,000. What is the sum of the missing numbers? 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12,13. For 110 people.”
The promotions have been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But are they legit? We checked.
Signs of a scam
The account’s promotions are similar to many scams we have previously exposed. They are poorly written with omitted words, random capitalisation and odd punctuation.
The account has been actively posting the promotions on Facebook groups, but not on their own timeline. This is a red flag, as genuine accounts usually run promotions on their own timelines.
We did not find the promotions on the verified Facebook page of Radio Citizen FM. Tuva has not posted them on his Facebook page either, which has over 837,000 followers.
To determine the legitimacy of the offers, we sent the word “promotions” to the account’s WhatsApp number. The account congratulated us and said we were one of the 100 fans who had won KSh35,000 each.
But there was a catch. We were asked to “unlock” our reward by paying KSh486 to another number. This was a clear indication that the account was fake and trying to scam us.
To avoid falling victim to online fraud, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
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