In the wake of the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, several websites are offering free 50 GB data plans for all mobile networks to stream the World Cup matches with no interruption. A few such websites can be seen here, here, here and here. Let’s check the veracity of these free 50 GB internet plans being offered by these websites.
Claim: Websites offering free 50 GB internet plans amid the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Fact: All these websites offering free 50 GB data plans in the wake of the FIFA World Cup 2022 are fraudulent. On clicking the link provided on these dubious websites, it redirects to a page asking users to provide mobile number details to check whether the provided mobile number is eligible for the offer. Further, upon providing the mobile number details, it redirects to a page asking users to share the registration link till the blue bar displayed on the website turns full. These websites do not provide any free data plans for people. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On clicking the link provided on these websites, it redirects the user to another page asking the user to provide the mobile number details to check whether the user’s mobile number is eligible to receive and activate the free 50 GB data plan provided for three months.
Further, upon providing the mobile number details, it redirects to another page congratulating the user for receiving a 50 GB free data plan for three months. But it asks the users to share the registration link of the website with 12 friends or groups on WhatsApp to avail of the offer. These websites ask the users to share the registration link until the blue bar displayed on the website turns full. No such internet plan is activated on a few mobile numbers we provided on these websites.
Earlier, when similar dubious messages were shared on social media claiming that Jio is offering a 25GB free data plan amid the COVID-19 lockdown, several news websites published articles reporting them as fraudulent messages. They can be seen here and here. Jio Care through a tweet clarified to a user that Jio does not send any such free data plan messages to customers and said that all Jio offers related information will be transparently available in the ‘MyJio’ app or on their official website. A few fact-check articles published by FACTLY regarding similar dubious websites offering free laptops, mobiles and scholarships in the name of the government can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, these dubious websites offering 50 GB free internet plans amid the FIFA World Cup 2022 are fraudulent.
