Fact Check: Jio Holi promotional offer rewards Rs 700 to customers? No, this is a scam
Claim: Jio customers can avail Rs 700 as a reward on the occasion of Holi. The offer also mentions that PMMY beneficiaries can get Rs 1,999 into their accounts.
Fact: The claim is false. Jio has no such promotional offer, and the reward for PMMY beneficiaries does not exist. Both are scams.
Hyderabad: For many people across the country, Holi is an occasion to spend time with their friends and family. The vibrant celebrations of the festival of colours are not just limited to individuals. Companies also make the most of the occasion by offering discounts and rewards. One such alleged promotional offer has taken social media by storm, amassing over 15.3 million views across just four Facebook posts.
The offer claims that Jio customers can avail of Rs 700 as a reward. This claim is made in four videos of the same promotional offer uploaded to Facebook on March 12.
The video contains an image of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries which leads Jio, logos of Jio Digital Life and JioCinema, along with a voiceover that says, “On the occasion of Holi, all Jio customers can avail Rupees 700 reward. Please click, to send the money quickly to your bank (account).” (Transcribed from Hindi audio)
The text on the post also reads, “On the occasion of Holi, all Jio customers can avail Rupees 700 reward. Please click, to send the money quickly to your bank.” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter has found that the claim is false. The promotional offer is a scam. Jio has not issued any offer for its customers to avail a reward of Rs 700 for Holi.
On the official website of Jio, we did not find any offer or promotion stating that customers can avail a reward of Rs 700 for Holi.
The social media handles of Jio, including Instagram and Facebook, also did not contain any information regarding the Holi promotional offer.
The Meta Ad Library, where all the active advertisements on the Meta platforms can be searched and viewed, does not show any Holi promotional offers by the company’s official social media accounts.
We clicked on the viral promotional offers and were redirected to a website with the URL ‘festivvholiiioff.xyz’. However, the URL of the official website of Jio is ‘jio.com’, which is not the official site. An archive of the website can be found here.
On the website, we do not see any promotional offer related to Jio. However, the website contains an image of prime minister Narendra Modi, the logo of ‘Digital India’, and an image of a digital scratch card which stated, “Through the medium of ‘Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana’ everyone can avail free 1999 Rupees in their account. To send this to your account, scratch below.” (Translated from Hindi)
“Every Indian citizen gets a gift of up to Rs 1,999 in their account under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,” is stated on the website. (Translated from Hindi)
The website of the scheme does not contain information regarding a reward of Rs 1,999 for all citizens. We found that there are no news reports or social media posts regarding the same.
This makes it clear that both the Rs 700 Jio Holi offer claim and the Rs 1,999 Mudra Yojana claim are false. These are scams trying to mislead netizens with promises of getting easy money.
We used Scam Adviser to check the authenticity of the Website URL ‘festivvholiiioff.xyz’. Calling it a suspicious website, Scam Adviser identified that the website could be a scam.
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CM Siddaramaiah alleges ‘criminal conspiracy’ in Sringeri recount, vows legal action
Bengaluru (PTI): Alleging a “criminal conspiracy” by BJP candidate D N Jeevaraj in the Sringeri Assembly poll recounting, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the outcome was manipulated after valid postal ballot votes in favour of Congress leader T D Raje Gowda were tampered with during the recounting process.
Following a Karnataka High Court order on an election petition filed by Jeevaraj, challenging Raje Gowda’s election, the reverification and recounting were conducted on Saturday.
After the reverification and recount of postal ballots for the Sringeri Assembly constituency, votes polled in favour of Raje Gowda were reduced by 255, the returning officer said.
A report on the matter has been submitted to the Election Commission of India for further action, the officer added.
Congress leader Raje Gowda had won the 2023 Assembly polls from Sringeri by 201 votes, defeating his nearest rival Jeevaraj.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said the High Court had directed the recounting of postal ballots and that irregularities were noticed during the exercise conducted on May 2.
“This is a clear case of criminal conspiracy,” Siddaramaiah said, alleging that valid votes cast in favour of Raje Gowda were altered after being accepted by counting agents of all parties, including Congress, BJP, and JD(S).
He claimed that during the recounting of postal ballots, 255 votes were initially accepted as valid by all agents but were later tampered with by subordinate officials.
“There is a second mark on the votes polled in favour of Raje Gowda. They had accepted these as valid votes. Subsequently, another mark was made by officials. This is a clear case of criminal conspiracy,” he said.
When asked who was behind the alleged conspiracy, the CM replied, “It was hatched by Jeevaraj and others. It is planned.”
Siddaramaiah further alleged that the returning officer acted improperly by declaring the result despite the presence of an Election Commission observer during the recounting.
“Immediately after the counting, the returning officer announced the result. He should not have done so; this is against the law,” he said.
He pointed out that Raje Gowda had originally won by 201 votes, but after the recounting, the BJP candidate was declared the winner by 52 votes.
“The BJP has committed a criminal act of conspiracy. This is not vote chori but vote dacoity,” he alleged.
The CM said a police complaint had already been filed by Raje Gowda’s election agent, Sudhir Kumar, and emphasised the need for electoral integrity.
“We want transparency and free and fair elections. That is what our Constitution mandates,” he added.
Stating that the government would pursue legal remedies, Siddaramaiah said, “We are preparing an appeal challenging the returning officer’s announcement in a court of law.”
Responding to a separate query on elections in other states, the CM said there appeared to be an anti-incumbency factor in West Bengal, while results in Tamil Nadu were “surprising,” adding that Vijay’s party was emerging as the largest there.
Following the victory of party candidates in Bagalkote and Davanagere South, Siddaramaiah expressed confidence about future electoral prospects in Karnataka.
“Even in 2028, we will win the Assembly elections. We will come back,” the CM said.
Siddaramaiah added that he would order a forensic examination into the alleged tampering of postal ballots.
