Fact-Check: Melcom is not offering free GH¢2000 gift cards

There has been a widespread claim that supermarket chain, Melcom, is offering Ghanaians gift cards valued at GH¢600 and GH¢2,000. The claim has been circulating on WhatsApp for the past one week.

The message primarily urges recipients of the message to visit a link to redeem the supposed gift cards which are said to be from Melcom to “support the nation”.

“Melcom is giving GH¢2000 Gift card to everyone this week to support the nation! Click here to get yours: testcnx.com/melcom,” the claim says.



Source: Whatsapp

Verification

Melcom, in a reaction on its verified Facebook page on May 4, denied giving out any such gift cards.

It said the information is false and must be disregarded.

“It has come to our notice that several different messages are circulating on WhatsApp and social media sites that #MelcomGhana is conducting surveys and giving away free vouchers of varying amounts.

If you have received any of these unauthorized or suspicious messages, please disregard and alert us immediately as these messages are completely FALSE,” the company said in a statement.

When we followed up with a telephone call to Melcom’s advertised 0561112777 phone number for further confirmation, a customer service representative who answered the call said;

“I’m sorry but the information is fake and we have already posted a disclaimer on our Facebook page and other social media platforms.”

This is not the first time the retail company has had to debunk this claim. Our checks also showed that the company had issued a similar disclaimer last week over the same matter.

Meanwhile, a similar claim is also circulating in other countries. In South Africa, a similar message on social media is being linked to Shoprite.



Shoprite South Africa has also denied running such promotion. After our question to Shoprite, the supermarket chain responded by saying “unfortunately that is a scam. We are not running a gift card/ voucher prize competition.”

Conclusion

Melcom is not running any promotion or offer of free gift cards. Citizens are advised to disregard any such information and not click on any associated link.