News about an AI – Powered trading platform, launched by Elon Musk has been making rounds on the internet, claiming to guarantee high returns for South African investors.
Third – Party Fact Checking Programme Confirms Scam
Several of the posts circulating on social media platforms lead to suspicious websites, that cannot be authenticated, confirms Africa Check , a partner in Meta’s third-party fact-checking programme.  The posts list the benefits of the new trading platform and quotes Musk as saying:
“Our trading platform is backed by cutting-edge AI technology and algorithms, ensuring a guaranteed doubling of your investment every 3 days.”
Suspicious Website Links
One of the posts, links to a website bikeshopthe.com. Clicking on the link brings up a privacy error notice on the users browser.
Another post linked to another website elonmusktrading.com. The website reportedly, has an inactive Download App option.
When trying to Download the App, the website reverts to another error message that reads, “Download link will be provided soon”. This raises several concerns about the credibility of these websites and others like them.
App Never Announced by Elon Musk
Observations made of Musk’s previous social media activity, indicates that he is always the first one to announce the launch of a new platform, product or service.
According to reports, Musk never announced the launch of the “new trading platform”.
Africa Check, partners with Facebook to help stop the spread of false information on social media. The content they deem as false will cause that information to be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram leading to lower visibility rates on platform feeds.
Stop the Spread of Misinformation
Facebook is also now empowering its users to stop the spread of false information. By visiting their help center, facebook provides a simple ‘How do I mark a Facebook post as false news?’ list of instructions in aiding this process.
//Staff Writer