Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Link in the form of an image published on Facebook, claiming that the Ministry of Finance will provide interest-free loans to people over 35 years old from June 19. This is one of the contents, recently treated and assessed as a fraud, based on the working methodology of hibrid.info (see here).
Hibrid.info has dealt with similar content in 14 cases, where it is claimed that various services and opportunities are offered by state institutions, various businesses and international organizations. (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here)
Method and form of publication
All the content covered is published as a photo with text, which announces the alleged opportunity, which can be clicked to open the website integrated in the image. In some cases, the photo even contains the logo of the institution, which is said to offer the service presented. These announcements published as links in the form of images, appear as sponsored posts on Facebook. (see one of the examples below)
What makes them suspicious?
After clicking on the image, the website opens, which does not indicate the name of the institution, organization or business that claims to offer the opportunity. In all cases, these websites have long URLs and are designed in the same way, where a closed cyan-colored space is displayed while the sections in the space are displayed in lighter shades of this color. These sections on the website are usually named in English, depending on the opportunity that is claimed to be offered by the Facebook post. The sections are linked to trusted external websites, which open after clicking on these sections. The external pages displayed, although in almost all cases are credible, have nothing to do with what is claimed to be offered in these announcements. (see one of the examples below)
In contrast, websites integrated into suspicious notifications have low credibility. Their credibility is easily evidenced by a dedicated website monitoring platform such as "ScamAdviser.com", which has found that the content offered by these sites may be fraudulent.
Another aspect that can make this content problematic is the information about their publishers. These announcements are published on Facebook by pages that: have a small number of irrelevant posts, have a low number of followers and provide no or little data about their activity. The location of those who manage these pages appears to be localized in countries outside of Kosovo.
Meanwhile, to verify the authenticity of the contents, hibrid.info always monitors the websites of the institutions and organizations mentioned, in which the authenticity of what is said within these notifications has never been confirmed, except in three cases, where the Ministry of Economy has reacted (here), Kosovo Police (here) and the Kosovo Red Cross (here) to these suspicious announcements, shortly after the treatments by hibrid.info (see here, here and here).