A string of cloned Nigerian media pages on the internet leaves social media users needing clarification about where to get accurate information.
The average Nigerian seeks information from the internet on topics such as current events, politics, job recruitment, business ideas, educational issues, and a range of other subjects. The search for information makes them susceptible to cloned pages that advertise fake job recruitment and Ponzi schemes to appeal to people.
More often than not, the handlers of the cloned pages are successful in their deceit.
Some of the media organisations that are victims of cloned accounts include AIT, NTA, and Channels Television — all of whom are popular household names for credible information in Nigeria.
To analyse the depth and scope of the coordinated attempts to spread misinformation, TheCable made use of CrowdTangle — an open-source investigation tool from Meta — to search for similar sock-puppet accounts used to deceive Nigerian citizens.
A total of 97 pages on Facebook were identified, posing as the aforementioned Nigerian media houses. These pages also make use of names and logos of the media houses to gain the trust of unsuspecting social media users and trick them in the end.
One name dominated most of the content of these pages — Crowd1 investment.
The Crowd1 Comeback
In November 2020, the BBC Africa Eye published an investigation revealing an international scam network called Crowd1. The investigation…
