A post is being widely shared on social media with a claim that Centre is providing free mobile recharge to all students for 12 months to celebrate Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra’s win at the Tokyo Olympics.
The viral message also contains a website link where users can fill in their details and recharge their numbers.
The post shared on Facebook read: “*नीरज चोपड़ा * ओलम्पिक में भारत के लिए *गोल्ड मैडल* जितने की खुशी में भारत सरकार सभी भारतीय बच्चो को Online पढ़ाई के लिए *₹ 2399 का 12 महीने* वाला रिचार्ज फ्री में देने का वादा किया है तो अभी निचे नीले रंग की लिंक पर क्लिक करके अपने नंबर पर रिचार्ज करे। https://free.myrecharge.site/“.
(English translation: Neeraj Chopra * As India won a * Gold Medal * in Olympics, the Government of India has promised to give all Indian students a free recharge of * ₹ 2399 12 months * for online studies. Now click on the blue link below and recharge your number. https://free.myrecharge.site/)
Similar Facebook posts can be seen here, here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found the claim to be false.
Firstly, we opened the link mentioned in the viral message, which led us to a website that did not look like a government website. Most government websites end with ‘.gov.in’ or ‘.nic.in’, but the URL of the website in question (free-rec.site) also did not look like a usual government website URL.
As we chose a network operator, the next page asked for some personal details like the user’s phone number and state. On entering details, we were asked to share the same post with 10 groups or friends on WhatsApp.
We further scanned through the official website and Twitter handles of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs but there was no such notification.
Moreover, we also found a tweet by Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India’s nodal information agency, stating that the viral post is fake and that the Centre has not made any such announcement regarding free recharge.
The tweet reiterated that people should not share their personal information on any such fake links.
दावा: #Olympics2021 में स्वर्ण पदक मिलने की खुशी में भारत सरकार सभी को 12 महीने फ्री रिचार्ज का अवसर दे रही है#PIBFactCheck
▶️ यह दावा फर्जी है।
▶️भारत सरकार ने फ्री रिचार्ज के बारे में ऐसी कोई घोषणा नहीं की है।
▶️कृपया ऐसे किसी भी फर्जी लिंक पर अपनी निजी जानकारी साझा न करे। pic.twitter.com/a9KDFX00uV
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) August 13, 2021
NewsMobile has previously debunked similar claims where viral messages stated that the Centre is distributing free laptops and smartphones. The fact-checks can be seen here, here and here.
Fact Check: No, Education Ministry Is NOT Distributing Free Laptops; Viral Message Is FAKE
Hence, from the above information, it is clear that the viral post is fake and the link is malicious.
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