Claim: A new mobile app for betting uses prominent images to attract users.
Verdict: Misleading! The videos were manipulated.
Full Text: A Facebook account that seems to be a video gaming page, Estrellas de la Victoria with 2.7k followers and 1.5k likes, has shared a video with Zoquay Beysolow Konneh.
Zoquay, a Liberian broadcast journalist and former employee of the Liberian Broadcasting System (LBS), the Liberia National Television (LNTV) station, encourages Liberians to use a mobile betting app.
The video that carries LNTV’s logo, news format, and the voice of its former broadcaster, Zoquay, has received 8.3k views, 42 reactions, 1 share, and 12 comments as of the time of the check.
The Claim: “In country, a new mobile app is breaking all records to downloads. This is all thanks to the…and the almost guaranteed win they offer. According to the app developer, the chances of winning in it are 90% higher than the other apps. Everyday residents of country shared review and story about their incredible victory. With each passing day, there are more and more reviews. No matter how unbelievable it may sounds, it seems that the app really works. For those who have long dream of changing their lives, this is a great opportunity. We will leave a link to the app below the video.”
One of the testimonies stated that, “At first, I was skeptical but I decided to give it a try and I don’t regret it. In a month, I earned enough for a new car and I will urge my friends to play with me.”
“My husband showed me this app, we started with 1000 LRD we lost, says the man, I didn’t stop but tried again, You should have seen the look on my wife face when I won a hundred and eighty thousand LRD; now she plays with me every day, said the man,” the second testimony noted.
Verification: To verify this claim, our researcher noticed multiple errors in the texts. The researcher also attempted to tag Zoquay in the video post but her name did not appear; however, we copied the link and sent it to her but she was unable to access the link.
Our researcher screen-recorded the video and shared it with Zoquay, at which time the broadcaster said she had no idea about the video and that it was brought to her knowledge by our fact-checker.
We further discovered that the video used by the page was taken from the LNTV News Youtube page in a May 8, 2020 broadcast about the COVID-19 lockdown.
Zoquay said, “ That’s a scam. I have no connection. They took it from the LNTV’s page. I was casting the news during the COVID-19 lockdown. That was when I braided that hair. I just can’t remember the main date.”
She also posted on her Facebook page, warning the public that the video was a scam.
Also, even though the page’s video which lasted for over one minute, has a Liberian news channel reporting its success story, all the visuals that are used as B-rolls are not from Liberia.
We also checked Esterrals de la Victory’s page but could not find the video on their page; however, there was a message under one of the two posts written in French that seems to be from Meta warning the page about copyright violations. The message is below.
Claim 2: There is also another website, Easy Money, with a similar video using the two former presidents, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George M. Weah, testifying how the app was useful to them.
The video has 16 comments, 14 shares, and 99 reactions. The video that was posted on June 13, 2024, described Weah as the current president.
Similarly, we visited the Easy Money Facebook page but could not find the circulated video.
Weah is heard telling Liberians in the video, “Every Liberian has the opportunity of making more money than usual, I can confirm it, you must try this mobile application, I have tested it myself and it worked. I want the people of my country to be rich.”
The video also described former President Johnson-Sirleaf as an elderly woman who listened to President Weah and made a change in her family by downloading the app from the promotion. According to the video, Johnson-Sirleaf won 100,000 LRD.
Verification: Weah is not the current president of Liberia, as stated in the video. TSM also observed that the videos used for the B-roll and the currency are not from Liberia.
The page says it was created in New York, United States. It has 240 likes and 2.2k followers.
When we checked the number attached to the page, we established that the mobile number +17064535433 attached to the page is registered in Greensboro, Georgia.
Additionally, when one clicks on those videos, they are taken directly to the Play Store to download their apps.
TSM also contacted Carlos Nah, an IT specialist, to understand the danger the apps posed to the public.
According to him, the video is not right but it is intended to scam the public. “They’re trying to scam people using ads or what is known as Funneling.”
When asked if opening the link would pose a threat to anyone who opened it or if users’ information would be stolen, Carlos said, “Nope! “You would fall prey to it by wanting to make money like those in the video, though you could tell that the video is dubbed.”
Conclusion: After our research, it has been discovered that those videos are misleading and intended to scam the public. Beware: these are AI-generated videos designed to trick the public into falling for a scam.
