Fact Check: The message claiming Jio offering free 25GB data daily during COVID-19 lockdown is fake
The message claiming Jio offering free 25GB data daily during COVID-19 lockdown is fake. No, Jio and Facebook have not rolled out any such offer for Jio users.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: April 27, 2020
A dubious message doing rounds claims that Jio and Facebook are giving 25GB free data daily to all Jio users due to COVID-19 lockdown. Vishvas News investigated and found that the viral post is fake.
Claim
The viral post on social media reads:
“GOOD NEWS! Jio and Facebook are giving 25GB Data Daily for 6 months to all Jio users due to lockdown of COVID-19. Download this app now: http://tiny.cc/psbmnz.” The archived version of the post can be checked here.
Investigation
Vishvas News investigated by searching any such notification by Facebook or Jio but there wasn’t any on their respective websites.
We further investigated by clicking on the url giving in the viral post. Upon clicking the url, we found that it is a shortened version of
https://offermyprime.weebly.com/.
Weebly is a web hosting device where one can create websites, blogs, or an online store. The screenshot of the page can be seen below:
The text on the page reads: “Jio 25GB Offer, Jio & FB has announced today to give free 25GB data daily with free calls for 6-MONTHS to all Jio Users. Activate this Jio Offer without any cost using all new Prime app.”
It promts the users to download the new Prime app to activate the Jio offer. When Vishvas News scanned the official website of Jio, there was no application mentioned by the name of “Prime” under the “APPS” tab. However, the other listed apps include: MyJio, JioSaavn, JioBrowser, JioChat and others.
When we clicked on the “Download App” button, it shows an apk “Android application package) file. This is the file format used by the Android operating system for the distribution and installation of mobile apps. The alert we received while downloading stated: “This type of file could harm your phone. Only download the file if you trust its source.”
Whereas, the apps listed on Jio’s website displays the Play Store link and App Store for iOS users. Clearly, the app is a phishing link and not a trusted application.
Since the message is directed towards Jio users, we spoke to Pooja Deb, Customer Care Department of Jio. She called the message as “fake”.
“This is completely fake. Please do not click on the link given in the viral message. This message has not be released by Jio. We have not rolled out any such offer.”
Vishvas News performed the social scanning of the user who posted the message. We found that the user named Rajkumar Soni is based out of Mumbai and his profile has been created since September 2017.
Disclaimer: The #CoronavirusFacts database records fact-checks published since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic and its consequences are constantly evolving and data that was accurate weeks or even days ago might have changed. Remember to check the date when the fact-check you are reading was published before sharing it.
Conclusion: The message claiming Jio offering free 25GB data daily during COVID-19 lockdown is fake. No, Jio and Facebook have not rolled out any such offer for Jio users.