“Register now to receive the gift. It is intended for the low-income group of society and the elderly,” the caption reads.
The text over the image asks users to click the link in the caption to receive the gift.
Most of the more than 400 Facebook users who responded to the post provided their bank account information.
The Ethiopian New Year is usually celebrated in September based on the Ethiopian calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar (archived here).
However, the link in the caption does not lead to the alleged gift.
Scam message
The Facebook page behind the alleged cash gift has the same name as the amount promised in the contest: “12,000”.
A check of the transparency section of the Facebook page revealed that it had been created two days before the contest was published.
Furthermore, the supposed registration link leads to an error page.
The domain of the URL shows that the webpage named “1200000000.my.canva.site” was created using the free website builder from graphic design site Canva.
The Facebook post attracted many users who left their bank account details in the comments, hoping to receive money.
“I am proud of you as a leader. Please transfer the gift to this account for me,” commented one of the users who shared his bank account details, referring to the country’s prime minister.
“Great gift for the new year. Please transfer the money to this account,” another commented.
It is unclear why the users shared their bank details, as this is not stated in the text of the post. However, the edit history of the post shows that it originally included an additional attachment, which is no longer available. This attachment could possibly have contained further instructions.
Scammers usually use bank details to steal money from customers’ accounts. The account numbers shared under the post usually belong to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, a state-owned bank that repeatedly warned its customers against such fraud (archived here).
An investigation of the prime minister’s official social media accounts and his office found that there were no announcements about cash gifts.
