Claim: A Facebook Loan Service, claiming to be a Guaranty Trust Bank Facebook account, claims a url link for followers and interested persons to click, to access a loan.
It is a scam link. The Facebook account does not belong to Guaranty Trust Bank and the url link does not link to the Bank site.
Full text
As fraudulent activities keep rising on Social Media platforms, Facebook remains one of the main platforms that perpetrators of such evil acts use to fish for victims, even as the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) is not left out of the scheme.
Recently on Facebook, a claim surfaced from an acclaimed GTB loan service account with a URL for its victims to click. The URL, when clicked, can give the scammers access to the victims’ contacts including bank details.
But is this Facebook page truly from GTBank? Does GTBank operate loans on social media platforms?
Verification
Dubawa spoke with a representative of the Guarantee Trust Bank to verify the Facebook page and the customer care representative, Ms Goodness after viewing the Facebook page, said the page does not emanate from GTBank.
“This is not from us. We do not have a loan app. Please do not give out your card details,” Ms Goodness said.
She noted that: “Our Facebook page is verified with a blue tick. No bank will ask you to provide your card pin.”
This makes the Facebook page fake, misleading, and fraudulent.
Another red flag detected is that the fake Facebook page indicated a URL to be clicked by loan applicants, which, according to the Customer Care Representative spoken with, is never a link to GTBank loan.
Conclusion
The Facebook Loan Service account and acclaimed link do not belong to Guaranty Trust Bank. All Banks, according to Ms Goodness, have verified social media handles and verified email addresses for complaint and request as this. Hence, the Bank has no affiliation with such a page.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with the Broadcastings Corporation of Oyo State, to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in Journalism and enhance Media Literacy in the Country.
