Recently, a claim titled “Special Bonus on Reaching 130 Million Customers | To Celebrate This Remarkable Milestone, Every bKash Customer Will Receive a BDT 1,300 Free Bonus—No Account Verification or Charges Required!” has gone viral on social media platforms.

Fact-check

Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation reveals that bKash has made no such announcement offering BDT 1,300 bonus to each customer on the occasion of reaching 130 million users. Rather, a fraudulent website has been created to deceive people with this false promise of an Eid bonus.

The investigation began with the Rumor Scanner Team accessing the website linked in the viral posts. Upon visiting the site, they found a bKash logo at the top and a headline repeating the same claim. The site further stated that the “offer is available only for valid and active bKash account holders. Each mobile number will receive BDT 1,300 as ‘bonus balance’ once. After claiming the bonus, the amount will be deposited within 24 hours. The bonus can be used for send money, mobile recharge, and bill payment. If any suspicious transaction is detected, bKash reserves the right to suspend the offer at any time.”

Scrolling further, the site displays multiple user comments claiming they have received the money. Just above that section, there is a hyperlink labeled “Click Here to Claim the Bonus.”

When a Rumor Scanner Team member clicked the hyperlink, it redirected to another page that read, “Congratulations, Dear Customer! Please fill out the form below with accurate information. The bKash number from which you want to withdraw must be active. A verification code will be sent to your number.” At this stage, the site requests the user’s bKash number and PIN. If an incorrect PIN is entered, it leads to a new page.

On this newly loaded page, the Rumor Scanner Team observed several red flags. The interface mimics the official bKash payment interface, but instead of receiving money, it appears to be a payment gateway. Moreover, instead of anything belonging to bKash, the payment recipient is labeled as “PUSTI FOOD AND LIVE BAKERY-RM1010232.” It also shows that the transaction is being made from the user’s own bKash account. After confirming the number, an OTP is sent and requested. However, in consideration of security, the Rumor Scanner investigator did not proceed further.

In a subsequent phase of the investigation, relevant keywords were searched to verify whether bKash had made any such announcement about the BDT 1,300 bonus. No reliable information supporting this claim could be found on bKash’s website, official Facebook page, or any trusted sources. A report published on March 23 on the national daily Prothom Alo was found regarding bKash's total number of customers. The report presents statistics on mobile financial services (MFS) from January, stating that the number of registered bKash users is around 80 million. Therefore, there is no credible evidence to support the claim that bKash has reached 130 million customers.

Thus, the claim that bKash is offering a BDT 1,300 bonus to every customer on the occasion of reaching 130 million users is entirely false and fabricated.

Source: https://rumorscanner.com/fact-check/scam-using-bkash-5/165094