No, President Ramaphosa will not be blessing you with 'free data'

• The Department of Communications and Digital Technology has warned about a scam that purports to show the president offering free data to supporters.
• The scam encourages people to click on links to redeem their free data.
• A link to the scam was flagged by security vendors.
• For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.

Links and messages that claim to show the president offering South Africans free data have become widespread enough to warrant an official scam warning from the Department of Communications and Digital Technology (DCDT).

The scam purports to represent President Cyril Ramaphosa making a generous offer to give away 10 gigabytes of data to all of his supporters.

To redeem the offer, the scammers try to get people to click on a link under the name of their mobile network.

It is not clear what happens after the link is clicked, but it wouldn't be advisable to try find out.

There is no factual basis to messages from the president offering free data to his supporters.

Screengrab/ DCDT

News24 entered the URL of a website purporting to offer free data from the president into Virus Total, a tool that checks links and URLs for malware. The link was flagged as being malicious by multiple security vendors. 

Malware is a term used for malicious software that is designed to damage or provide unauthorised access to a computer system.

Potentially threatening links can be entered into sites like VirusTotal to check for potential malware.

Screenshot/ VirusTotal

The warning signs that the offer is a scam are clear. The link spells Ramaphosa's name incorrectly and the short caption on the post is riddled with spelling errors.

In a series of posts on X, the DCDT said that there had been a surge in these types of scams.

"We would like to bring your attention to the recent surge in fake messages and disinformation being shared online," the department said.

"In today's digital age, misinformation spreads rapidly and can have significant consequences. It is crucial to verify the authenticity of any information before believing or sharing it."

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The department added that there was no factual basis to the so-called data offer from the president.

This is not the first time this year that a government department has had to warn about scammers using the president's name to steal information or money from people.

In June this year, the Presidency advised South Africans that the president would not request any funds or endorse any payments through any medium.