IN SHORT: Kenyan musician Evance Ochieng, known by his stage name Prince Indah, is among the most popular celebrities in the local entertainment industry. But his popularity has also seen scammers use his name for selfish gains.
The Facebook page Prince Indah frequently posts promotions on Facebook groups in Kenya, promising users easy cash prizes.
The page appears to ride on the popularity of Kenyan musician Evance Ochieng, also known as Prince Indah, to run the promotions. It uses his stage name and photos in its posts.
A post on its timeline, dated 15 November 2023, reads: “TUPEE CORRECT ANSWER TUKUZAWADI 35,000 KSHS FROM ROYAL MEDIA GROUP, NI MWEZI UPI HUKO NA SIKU CHACHE KWA MWAKA, NATAKA 257 PEOPLE.”
This translates from Kiswahili as: “Give us the correct answer and we will give you KSh35,000 from Royal Media Group. Which month has the least number of days in a year? I need 257 people.”
The page has posted similar promotions on Facebook groups here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But is the page legit and are the offers to be trusted? We checked.
Fake page, scam offers
We noticed that the promotions run by the page were too good to be true and similar to many others run by fake accounts and pages.
For instance, the page asked users to send happy birthday wishes to a Kenyan actor for a chance to win money. It told dozens of those who commented that they had won KSh75,000. It is unlikely that any Kenyan celebrity would be dishing out so much money, just for users sending birthday wishes.
It is also questionable why a Kenyan musician would be willing to give out thousands of shillings to fans of another celebrity. Asking users to name their favourite TV programme and telling them they have won the same amount is equally suspicious.
Facebook allows public figures such as Prince Indah to verify their pages on the platform. These pages then carry the “blue tick” verification badge.
While the Facebook page in question has only 5,000 followers and is not verified, the musician's official page Prince Indah is verified and has over 943,000 followers. No such promotions have been posted on the verified page.
The suspicious page also asks users to engage privately over WhatsApp to claim their prizes but this is likely a further attempt to scam them.
All signs point to a fake Facebook page with scam offers.
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