A post has been circulating on WhatsApp stating that the Federal Government of Nigeria has directed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to open the Child Support Scheme to all Parents.
The Post retrieved from a WhatsApp group on April 26, 2024 claims that every Nigerian Parent is entitled to receive the sum of 50,000 for 6 months
THE CLAIM
The Federal Government is giving 50,000 for child support to all Nigerian Parents.
THE FINDINGS
Findings show that the claim is FALSE
In an independent review carried out by FactCheck247 it was observed that the post retrieved was recurring from 2023.
The Nigerian Tribune,one of the news mediums in the country had reported it to be FALSE.
In the statement, The federal government through the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, Dr Betta Edu (who is currently on suspension) urged Nigerians to disregard the trending fake news tagged: federal government’s 50,000 child support fund for all Nigerian Parents is ongoing “
To verify the link, we utilised EASYDMARC, a link verification tool, which tagged the link as a high-security risk.
It was observed that the website linked to the claim showed phishing characteristics
The website in question employs tactics used by fraudulent entities which compel individuals to share it with either 5 groups or 15 people on WhatsApp before receiving a confirmation Email within 24 hours
Also observed is the grammatical error on the suspicious link. Instead of Among, the page contains “Amoung”. this is one of the phishing scam
A technical writer and editor, Alexander S. Gillis, described phishing as a social engineering and cybersecurity attack where the attacker impersonates someone else via email or other electronic communication methods, including social networks and short message service (SMS) text messages, to reveal sensitive information.
Factcheck247 checked the X handle of the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation and nothing similar could be found on the page about the scheme.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the federal government is giving 50,000 for child support to all Nigerian parents is FALSE.
Also, link to the claim has the characteristics of a phishing scam and the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation has already debunked this in 2023.
