Manipulated video falsely shows Dangote advertising phishing investment scheme

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Claim: A Facebook user shared a video showing Aliko Dangote supposedly promoting a platform that promised Nigerians a guaranteed weekly income through a limited investment scheme.

Verdict: False. The video has been altered. The link in the post points to a newly created foreign-based domain, and the original footage we found does not mention the investment scheme. The post is a manipulated attempt to mislead Nigerians.

Full Text

People do not usually set out looking for false information, but when a message is presented convincingly and linked to someone they trust, people fall for it. 

In Nigeria, economic hardship has worsened this. The World Bank shows that 75.5 per cent of rural Nigerians and 41.3 per cent of urban Nigerians live below the national poverty line. 

With these glaring figures, messages that promise money or opportunity easily attract attention. This is why the names of trusted public figures are often used to push false stories. 

A typical example is Aliko Dangote, whose identity has been used many times in fake grant offers and investment schemes that DUBAWA has debunked here and here.

Still related to the business tycoon, a Facebook user, @Ileana Brodbek, recently shared a video of him in an interview where he urged Nigerians to invest in a limited opportunity with sums ranging from N360,000 to N1.4 million each week.

The two-minute clip started with a female reporter who said, “Tens of thousands of Nigerians over the age of 40 are quitting their jobs and retiring. What is the reason?” 

A slight pause and transition followed this, then DUBAWA heard her say, “It is a new platform by the government, you can find the full details in our report.”

The video then showed Dangote as he talked about an “impressive” investment platform.

He said, “Honestly, Today might be your lucky day. I don’t know how many people are listening to this broadcast, but only those watching right now will have access to this opportunity. We cannot open this platform to the whole country because the results are so impressive that it will lead to an imbalance in the system. With a minimum investment of only 360,000 naira, you can earn more than 1.4 million naira.”

He warned that the link attached to the registration is unique and can be accessed only once.

When the reporter asked how many people had joined and what the results were, he said they tested it with a group of volunteers and all of them earned more than 2.5 million naira. He also assured that if anyone tries it and it fails, he will personally pay for it out of his own pocket.

The footage carried a Punch Newspaper logo and an inscription reading “Morning news,” suggesting that the report originated on the platform.

As of Dec. 10, 2025, the post had 50,000 views, 2,000 likes, and 67 comments.

DUBAWA tried to look through the comments, but although the number was visible, we could not access them because the poster had hidden them.

The suspicious nature of the claim and video, with speech patterns that seemed abnormal and hidden comments, led DUBAWA to investigate the claim.

Verification

DUBAWA started by clicking the link attached to the video, which led directly to a report (on deshbhokto.com) claiming to be from Punch Newspaper. The headline read: “Aliko Dangote’s new project has already made more than 10,000 Nigerian residents happy! The platform promises a guaranteed income of 4,600,000 Nigerian naira per week with minimum investments. Is this really true?”

Reading the report explains the rationale for the investment programme, its benefits, and why Nigerians should invest. 

Several questionable details from the report stood out to DUBAWA. First, the publication date was automatically updated to December 10, 2025, even though the link had been shared days earlier. Second, the platform’s layout, including the long headline and uncoordinated fonts. This raised further suspicion. The URL also differed from the usual Punch Newspaper domain and appeared tattered, with no trace of the official name.

While examining the report, DUBAWA found a link to register for the investment fund. Following the steps, the form requested personal information, including name, email, mobile number, and BVN. This diverged entirely from the stated purpose of registration, a clear warning sign of a phishing scam.

So we ran the URL through a domain search on Who.is. The search showed that the website was registered on June 17, 2025. The domain has no active website, uses shared name servers hosting over 463,000 other domains, and the IP address points to a server in Amsterdam, Netherlands. These details make it impossible for the domain to be an authentic Punch Newspaper website, as the publication is a well-established Nigerian outlet. 

Video authenticity check

We used the Hiya Deepfake Detector to test the audio. It returned a score of seven out of 100, indicating that the video is likely a deepfake.

Result from Hiya Deepfake Detector.

We also used Hive.ai to analyse the video. The analysis showed the footage is 99.9% AI-generated, confirming it is not authentic.

Result from Hive.ai

Lastly, we used a screenshot from the video to trace the original footage. This led us to a clearer video shared by Bloomberg showing Dangote and the same reporter discussing the removal of Nigeria’s mineral resources and fuel subsidy. 

The clip, shared on Sept. 24, 2024, contained no reference to the investment scheme promoted by the Facebook user. This confirms that the footage was altered.

Conclusion

DUBAWA’s findings confirm that the video, which claimed Aliko Dangote was endorsing a get-rich-quick investment platform, has been manipulated. As a result, the claim is false.