Image: Namibia Fact Check / Canva
Fake scholarship promotions to foreign universities are floating around social media with all the other jobs and grants scams
Namibia Fact Check has been monitoring a few of these scams for a number of months now.
There are especially two scam scholarship posts that appear to be continuously circulating in WhatsApp groups.
The first one is for scholarships to study in Norway, at the University of Oslo (image below).
The second one is for scholarships to study in Qatar, at Qatar University (image below).
The posts have all the signs of being fake or not from the actual universities themselves – poor grammar and bad spelling; no official logos or emblems; no official contact details or contact person listed; and, of course, an unofficial looking weblink in the post.
Namibia Fact Check reached out to both the University of Oslo and Qatar University to find out if they offered such scholarships.
At the time of publication only the University of Oslo had responded (image below), stating that the post was a “scam”.
Namibian social media users are cautioned not to click on the links or call numbers listed in such posts as they could be an attempt to steal personal information. Also, social media users are encouraged not to forward or share such posts if they are unsure of the information in such posts.