Fact Check: Beware! Free laptop scheme for students is hoax
A message about free laptops is going viral on Whatsapp. Users claim free laptops would be provided to those financially weak students.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 19 Jan 2022 1:35 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A message about free laptops is going viral on Whatsapp.
Users claim free laptops would be provided to those financially weak students.
Users said students from various countries are eligible to apply for the scheme.
According to the message, around 3 lakh students received laptops in 2021. Around 8 lakh students will be given free laptops in 2022.
The viral message asks students to click on the link and apply for the scheme.
Fact Check
The claim is a hoax.
NewsMeter began its investigation by carefully having a look at the viral message. The viral message did not look authentic and trustworthy. We noticed that the viral message had no proper punctuation. It had grammatical errors and spelling errors, like 'received' was written as 'recieved' and 'getting' was written as 'gettig'.
The team also found that it uses a link shorter (Cutt.ly). When we clicked on it, we were redirected to its original URL, which is not genuine.
On clicking on the link, we were directed to a website. The website had just mentioned 'Free Laptops for Students' along with a few national flags of some countries. The website had no proper name.
We then noticed that the link that was given in the viral message had changed
https://laptops4u-students.
The link uses an illegal domain like .xyz or .online etc. for winning the trust of people.
At the end of the page, it had a very simple mathematics question, which popped up every time we refreshed the page. The page had asked to answer that question in order to qualify for the laptop. Even after entering a wrong answer, we were directed to the following page.
On clicking on the selected options, the website further asked for some personal details including phone number, address, and date of birth.
On a trusted and genuine website, we generally get to see some pages like Contact Us, About Us, and Privacy Policy. However, this website had no such pages. The website is also made only for mobile view. You can't open it on the computer.
(Laptop view of the viral link)
In this "Students Laptop Scheme 2022" Application form, even if you don't fill any option, even then the form will be submitted.
It is therefore evident that the viral message is a hoax.
