The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has raised alarm over a new trend that scammers have begun using to defraud the public following the announcement by pop star Davido of N250 million donation to charity.
The commission said in a statement on Tuesday by its spokesman Ikechukwu Adinde that it got wind of the scam while undertaking online social listening.
“Exploiting Davido’s benevolence, a group of scammers rolled out an advertorial titled ‘Davido Airtime and Data Giveaway’, which went viral, claiming that Davido is ‘giving out free 5K Airtime and 10GB Internet data of All Networks’ to celebrate his birthday,” the NCC said.
“In the advertorial, the general public is urged to hurry and get the gift by clicking on the links that supposedly redirect them to network sites, where they will be credited with airtime and data. This is a scam.
“The NCC wishes to advise our teeming telecom consumers to have nothing to do with the advert or any similar bogus enticements. The adverts are what they are – social engineering rip-offs designed to get people’s MSISDN and other information that fraudsters can use later to defraud unsuspecting telecom consumers and members of the public.
“For clarity, the MSISDN is simply the full phone number of a cellphone, in addition to other protocol information. This number is unique and identifies subscribers/owners in a GSM or other mobile networks.
“Therefore, it suffices to state that any unscrupulous person or unethical hacker can use the number and attendant protocol to undermine the privacy of the real owners of the number through identity theft and other scams.”
The NCC warned that if a promo or an offer seems too good to be true, then it is likely untrue.
