Beware of scams, FG not  giving N185,000 family support to Nigerians

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Amarachi Onwuzulike

Claim: A WhatsApp broadcast message claims the federal government has approved N185,000 to Nigerians for family support.

Verdict: False. The broadcast message features a phishing link. Besides, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has not announced the alleged development.  

Full Text 

Poverty continues to be a major issue in Nigeria, even though the country is rich in natural resources and has great economic potential. In response, the Federal Government (FG) and several organisations have introduced different programmes to reduce poverty.

Against this backdrop, a viral message on Meta’s messaging application, WhatsApp, states that the FG of Nigeria has launched a National Family Support Allowance, offering ₦185,000 to every Nigerian for three months.

The message references the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who has allegedly asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Nentawe Yilwatda, to open the national family support scheme.  

The message claims this move is due to the high complaints from Nigerian families. It claims each family will receive this amount for three months. 

The message contained an application link and a request that the user share it with others. 

“…… Apply Now For Federal Government ₦185,000 NATIONAL FAMILY SUPPORT Cash Transfer. APPLY NOW. https://gvly.xyz/FG-National-Family-Support-Allowance. N.B.: SHARE WITH OTHERS, LET THEM ALL BENEFIT FROM THE NATIONAL FAMILY SUPPORT,” part of the post reads.

Due to the significance of this claim for Nigerians and the possibility of it being a scam scheme, DUBAWA decided to verify it.

Verification

We ran a keyword search on this message and found no evidence of a legitimate scheme under this name. The alleged development was not published on any credible news platform, government website, or official social media handles of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

Also, we clicked the web link and saw that the website was created as clickbait to collect applicants’ details that could be used for phishing.

After requesting unsuspecting applicants to validate their bank account numbers, they must share the post to five WhatsApp groups of 15 individual contacts before accessing the payment portal. This is usually the pattern of a phishing attack on an unsuspecting person.

DUBAWA reviewed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation’s official X handle but found no announcement or mention of such a scheme. 

DUBAWA also emailed and called the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, but did not receive a response.

Conclusion 

The claim that the Federal Government is disbursing ₦185,000 to every Nigerian under a “National Family Support Allowance” is false. The message is a scam and part of a recurring pattern of fraudulent schemes designed to steal personal information.