Image Courtesy: Namibia Fact Check / Facebook
Viral social media pages are claiming to be HiFi Corp pages that promote cheap electronics ‘mystery’ boxes
One of the pages (image below) on Facebook and Instagram claims that South African home electronics and appliances retailer HiFi Corp is running a promotion in Namibia through which “lost and forgotten” electronics and appliances can be bought cheaply as a “mystery box of electronics for only NAD 55 (shipping included)”.
Another post (image below) claims the electronics and appliances are sold off every three months because “people don’t pick up their packages, and they fill up our warehouses”.
The Facts
Namibia Fact Check decided to engage with the following post on Instagram:
“Every day, people don’t pick up their packages, and they fill up our warehouses. By law, we must store them for up to 3 months, and then either dispose of them or sell them off.
That’s why every 3 months, we have sales for 55 NAD.
Inside the box, you can receive Apple, Samsung, Dyson, JBL, and much more tech.
To participate in the promotion, click ”Submit Application.”
When we clicked on the “Submit Application” tab, it took us to a webpage that was not linked to an official HiFi Corp website, which indicated that it was part of a phishing scam to scam people out of personal information and money.
Under the post on the fake HiFi Corp Instagram page are comments from people warning about the scam and some even providing testimony of how they were scammed out of money through engaging with the page.
Also, the fake promotions on the fake HiFi Corp social media pages do not appear on the official HiFi Corp social media pages, such as its Facebook page.
Social media users are cautioned to make sure they are dealing with the official social media pages of companies before engaging on such pages. Also, social media users are encouraged to read the comments below posts, as some comments on the pages discussed in this article were testimonies of having been scammed through engaging with content on the fake HiFi Corp pages.