By Toheeb Babalola
Claim
Website purported to be the authentic gateway for resolving identification-related concerns pertaining to Nigerian Identity Number.
The website which was shared on WhatsApp claimed that the Federal Government of Nigeria has urged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) – a commission saddled with responsibility to register, correct and issue National Identification Number (NIN) for the citizens home and abroad – to open a Correction portal and attend to the complaints of bonafide citizens for “FREE”.
Verdict
False! The website is a scam site intended to appear as reputable and authentic in order to obtain unsuspecting user personal information.
VERIFICATION
Clicking on the website link , it was observed that https://tr.ee – a URL for shortening website – redirected to https://bet9ja-happy-anniversary-2023-xyz.blogspot.com/?m=1, displayed a webpage containing the logo of NIMC with description of Modification/Correction Portal 2024 and asking the user to choose from list of errors pertaining to NIN such as Date of Birth correction, Name correction, Phone number correction, Retrieval of lost Slip, Address correction and others.
Meanwhile, the URL, which begins with “bet9ja” – a popular name for a Nigerian sports betting company – has caused a conflict with the webpage’s display. Any government agency website begins with an abbreviation and ends with .gov.ng, not .blogspot.com.
This fact-checker selected a box from the list of corrections and clicked the “Proceed” button as instructed. The site redirected to another page that displayed testimonials from beneficiaries, indicating that the user request had been received. It requested that you click “Check” to determine whether you were eligible for a modification.
The website requested personal information such as Full Name, Gender, Date of Birth, Email address, Phone Number, and State. The url was changed again to https://dffsfggdfjhffgjjhssf.blogspot.com/, with the description Apply for N25,000 cash in the browser taskbar.
After clicking Proceed Here, the fact-checker was congratulated on his eligibility and asked to share the website with 5 groups or 15 WhatsApp friends before being directed to apply the NIN correction.
Checking the domain lookup platform Whois.com revealed that the website is owned by MarkMonitor Inc., a domain retail platform based in the United States.
The website was registered in July 2000, last updated in June 2023, and will expire on June 31, 2024.
Moreover, contrary to what the website claims, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) does not offer free payment modification on its website or social media accounts.
Upon verifying the genuine portal of the NIMC self-service website for adjustments and changes of NIN, it was observed that its domain URL contains .gov.ng and its webpage provides requirements for each modification.
Conclusion
The purpose of using the https://tr.ee/Nimc-Portal-For-Correction url to direct users to the scam site is for the site’s creator(s) and accomplices to appear as reputable and authentic in order to obtain user personal information for future fraud.
