Claim: The federal government is allocating the sum of N80,000 as empowerment fund to selected Nigerians.
Verdict: The claim is not true; caller is a scammer.
Full Text:
A viral message received by some Nigerians claimed that the federal government is allocating the sum of N80,000 as empowerment fund to selected people.
The recipients of the message are urged to reach out to an attached phone number to claim the fund.
The viral message potentially reaches millions of unsuspecting Nigerians, hence, the need to investigate its source.
Verification
Ripples Nigeria observed that no mention of any ministry disbursing the supposed funds.
Further checks show that the Federal Government of Nigeria is currently not reaching out to citizens via text for empowerment funds.
Ripples Nigeria checked the phone number attached to the viral message using Truecaller. The identity verification application reveals the registered name of the caller as ‘Federal Government’. The app also flags the number as fraudulent after 45 spam reports.
Checking through the reports, it was observed that while some people are making enquiries on how to access the funds, others called out the number for scam.
A screenshot report of the the fraudulent number on Truecaller
On Sept 27th, Ripples Nigeria fact-checker puts a call through to the phone number but it was switched off.
Conclusion
The message in circulation that the federal government is distributing N80,000 as empowerment funds is a scam; the public are urged to disregard it.
By Quadri Yahya
The post FACT-CHECK: Is the Nigerian govt allocating N80,000 as empowerment fund to selected Nigerians? appeared first on Latest Nigeria News | Top Stories from Ripples Nigeria.
