Fact-check: The United Nations isn’t running a peace and security gift in South Sudan

The online message claiming that the United Nations is running a peace and security gift program of SSP 100,000 is a hoax.

Writer: Makur Majeng

A widely circulated WhatsApp message stating that the United Nations (UN) is running a peace and security gift programme of SSP 100,000 is a hoax.

Screenshot of the forwarded message.

Upon clicking the forwarded link, the website claims that the United Nations (UN) has a peace and security gift programme and directs users to a questionnaire that asks about their knowledge of the United Nations (UN), their age, their opinion about the United Nations (UN), and their gender.

The screenshot of the questionnaire

After answering the four questions, users are instructed to randomly select one of six boxes to win the prize potentially.

The screenshots of the claim web pages

The website then states that participants must share the promotion with five groups or 20 friends on WhatsApp, provide an address for registration, and wait for the gift to be delivered within 5-7 days.

Web pages on the impostor’s website

Claim Verification:

A Google Keyword Search using “United Nations – peace and security gift” yielded no results for such a program or subsidy.

Further investigation revealed that the website’s Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link provided in the claim is flagged as Phishing, Malicious, and containing Malware by VirusTotal, a free service that analyses files and URLs for viruses, worms, trojans, and other types of malicious content.

A Whois domain search of the website’s URL shows that the domain name, which differs from the UN’s domain, was registered in May 2023 and will expire in May 2024.

The screenshot of the claim link’s domain data

On the other hand, the WhoIs information on the UN’s official global website reveals that its domain was registered in January 1995 and will expire in February 2024.

The screenshot of the UN WhoIs data

Additionally, the website domain name https://www.u3rv61e.cn does not align with the URLs typically used by official organisations or institutions, which usually feature ‘.org’ in their URLs, as is the case with the legitimate United Nations Website.

It is evident that the domain does not match the official UN website, and there is no advertisement for such a program on the UN’s website or social media accounts.

Conclusion:

211 Check finds the claim that the UN is running a peace and security gift program, a hoax devised as a phishing scam to trick people into providing their personal information.

A publication under 211 Check’s ‘Fact-check for a pay’ Initiative with Support from the International Fact-checking Network through the BUILD grant.

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