A message is doing rounds on social media claiming that central government is providing Phase 4 Covid-19 Relief Fund.
The message read, ‘Answer the questions to receive Valentine’s Day gifts. I participated in this questionnaire and won a mobile phone. My friend also got the prize. Come and get prizes’.
Here’s the link to the above post. The same post can be found here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above message and found it to be FAKE.
We started our investigation by checking the link in the viral message (https://covid19support.free-fund.online/#1622831884186) and here’s what we found:
1. A ‘Congratulations!’ pops on the screen which reads ‘To receive the Covid-19 Government Relief Fund. Answer the following three questions to Continue!’
It asks some personal questions like, ‘Choose Your Age Range’, ‘How much amount do you want to receive’, and ‘What is Your Employment Status’.
2. On answering all questions, it led us to the second page that read, ‘After considering your answers, you have qualified to receive the relief fund. Complete the steps to obtain the withdrawal code’.
Then it asked us to share the same message on WhatsApp with 15 friends or on 5 groups.
We noted that the website interface was nothing like a regular government website and the domain name was also not .gov or .org.
On further investigation, we found a tweet by Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s nodal information agency, dated June 4, 2021.
The tweet stated that the message is fake. It further warned that people should not disclose any personal information on such fraudulent websites.
This WhatsApp forward claiming that the Central Government is providing Phase 4 Covid-19 Relief Fund is #FAKE!
Do not believe such forwarded messages and never disclose any personal information on these fraudulent websites.#PIBFactCheck pic.twitter.com/8f0yDZDIZm
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 4, 2021
All the information put together proves that the message in circulation is a hoax.
If you want to fact-check any story, WhatsApp it now on +91 11 7127 9799
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