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Claim: Ioannis Elenis shared a viral news article on Facebook claiming that President Julius Maada Bio has endorsed Fortuix Agency in an interview with Forbes’ Seth Cohen.
Verdict: False! DUBAWA’s investigation of the news article showed it lacked credibility. No credible news media reported the story in the country. Based on a website scan on Cisco Talisco Intelligence, the website is “untrusted and malicious.”
Full Text
With the prevalence of digital platforms and websites, it has become quite difficult to distinguish between authentic and fraudulent digital websites.
For instance, online fraudulent websites scam people in low-income countries using social engineering tactics to create fake, legitimate-looking sites that manipulate victims through emotions like excitement or urgency to extract money or personal data.
These scammers exploit the vulnerabilities of citizens in low-income countries by offering lucrative fake investment or job opportunities, impersonating trusted organisations, or creating convincing fake e-commerce sites or news items, perfectly amplified by AI-generated content.
Countries like Sierra Leone, with lower digital literacy, are mainly susceptible to these well-calculated scammers.
On Sept. 9, 2025, a Facebook user, Ioannis Elenis, shared a news article alleging that President Julius Maada Bio has endorsed Fortuix Agency in an interview with Forbes’ Seth Cohen.
The news article, allegedly written by Samuel Koroma and published by Swit Salone, is a well-crafted exclusive interview of President Bio speaking to Seth Cohen, the Chief Impact Officer at Forbes.
For instance, the article quoted President Bio saying, “You’ve probably heard of the famous FortuixAgent. I held tough negotiations with the platform’s president and was able to agree on the opening of 4,000 social accounts for our citizens. Every citizen over the age of 18 can register with FortuixAgent and receive passive income.”
The article also alleged that President Bio’s government is giving 113,000 NLe to citizens monthly from taxpayers’ money.
DUBAWA decided to fact-check it on the suspicion of inaccurate information.
Verification
Firstly, DUBAWA conducted a Google Keyword search and found no credible news agency in Sierra Leone reported the claim.
Secondly, we thoroughly read the news article and found it lacked relevant information about when and where the interview was conducted.
Below are the key findings obtained from our investigation:
- Impersonating Publisher: We observed that the news article has cloned a credible news site in Sierra Leone, Swit Salone. We, therefore, contacted the editor, Abigail Adeyemi, who confirmed to us on WhatsApp that they have not done a story of such nature. She also told DUBAWA that they do not have an employee named SAMUEL KOROMA.
Find below the difference between the original website and the fake website.
The difference between the original website and the fake website.
- Seth Cohen’s interview with President Bio was unrelated to Fortuix Agency: Our investigation showed that 11 months ago, President Bio had an interview with Seth Cohen, the Chief Impact Officer of Forbes, to discuss his plans for youth development during the Forbes Talk. During the interview, President Bio spoke on how youthful leadership is shaping Africa’s future on the global stage. But the President did not say anything related to the fictitious news article shared by Iaonnis Elenis.
- Inaccurate Currency: The article uses the wrong currency (SLE) for Sierra Leone instead of NLe.
- Malicious and Untrusted website: DUBAWA scanned the website of the news article on Cisco Talisco Intelligence, and the result showed that the website is “untrusted” and “malicious.”
- Apart from the home page, which displays the disputed report, every other page on the site leads to the Fortuix Agent site, which is inappropriate.
Find the results of the scan below:
- Social Engineering Tactics designed by the website: We observed that the website is a clickbait, designed to explore personal data and attract investment from social media users. For instance, with just a click, the site urges users to invest and make around 18,000 NLe daily.
We also contacted President Bio’s Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, to verify the claim further, but he did not respond.
Conclusion
Our thorough investigation of the news article showed it lacked credibility. No credible news media reported the story in the country. Based on a website scan on Cisco Talisco Intelligence, the website is “untrusted and malicious.”
