A website impersonating supermarket chain Carrefour, and promising gifts in its name is a HOAX.

The link to the website directs to a webpage containing the message entitled “Win Free Gifts from Carrefour”.

The message itself asks users to take part in a customer satisfaction survey by answering a questionnaire to stand a chance of winning a Carrefour gift card worth Ksh 10,000.

“There are 78 gift cards left,” adds the message.

The questions require the user to provide information on whether they know Carrefour, how old they are, their opinion about the retail chain, and if they would recommend it to their friends.

But after answering the questions, a new message pops up informing the user that the answers have been successfully ‘saved.’ Further instructions require the user to pick the ‘correct’ boxes among those presented. “You have three attempts to make. Good luck!” adds the message.

Selecting a box brings up another message congratulating the user for winning a Ksh 10,000 gift voucher. However, in order to redeem the gift, they must share information about the promotion with either five groups or 20 friends. Thereafter, the instructions require them to key in their email address to complete the registration.

Accepting the terms and conditions opens up yet another message with further instructions to click on the WhatsApp icon on the page to receive the giveaway.

The next step requires the user to click on the “continue” button to get the gift card. This sequence mirrors many phishing scams that are modelled as promotional giveaways with the sole purpose of mining personal information.

There is no information about the giveaway on the legitimate Carrefour website or its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The domain name of the website in question is wishurl.xyz, which is not the legitimate domain of the Carrefour website, carrefour.ke.

The WHOIS information of the impostor website reveals it was registered on 21 July 2021, days after the link was shared online. The domain is also registered in the US state of Arizona.

On the other hand, the WHOIS information of the legitimate website of Carrefour shows that it was registered on 30 November 2019 in France and that the domain is owned by the retail chain.

In a Facebook post on 22 July 2021, Carrefour warned members of the public against fraudsters impersonating its website.

“Dear Esteemed Customers, please beware of fraudsters. Please note that Carrefour Kenya only communicates through our official social media channels, e-mail, and website,” reads the post.

PesaCheck has looked into the website impersonating supermarket chain Carrefour, and promising gifts in its name and finds it to be a HOAX.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck Chief Copy editor Rose Lukalo.

The article was approved for publication by Managing Editor Enock Nyariki.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.