Fact Check: Modi, BJP haven’t announced any free recharge scheme on return to power

Uttarakhand police called the free recharge posts fake and advised people to not feed their phone numbers on suspicious websites.

Credit: Factly

Multiple posts containing links to unknown websites are being widely shared on social media, claiming that PM Narendra Modi and BJP are offering free mobile recharge for three months to every Indian as a reward for winning the 2024 elections and Modi becoming PM for the third time. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in these posts.

The archived version of these posts can be found here and here.

Claim: BJP and PM Modi are offering free recharge on the occasion of forming the government for a third term.

Fact: These viral posts are fake. Neither BJP nor PM Modi is offering any free recharge. The links provided in the posts direct to dubious websites. There are numerous news reports about cybercriminals committing cybercrimes through such fake messages and websites. Additionally, in a Facebook post, Chamoli Police (Uttarakhand) clarified the post as fake and advised people not to open such unknown links. Hence, the claim made in the post is false.

Clicking the URL link provided below the post led to a webpage featuring a photo of PM Modi’s rally. The webpage prompts users to click on a ‘check now’ button to avail the benefits of the offer. After clicking the button, users are asked to enter their mobile number. After that, the website doesn’t take the users anywhere.

We then checked the official social media handles of Modi and BJP to see if they had announced any such scheme (here, here, here, here. here, here, here & here). There was no mention of it anywhere.

During this search, we found a post shared by Chamoli police (Uttarakhand) on their Facebook page on 5 June 2024. Responding to a similar post claiming free recharge by PM Modi, they clarified the post as fake and advised people not to open such unknown links.

When similar posts claiming PM Modi’s free recharge schemes went viral before, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) debunked them.

Entering one’s mobile number on such dubious websites may result in receiving spam calls, messages, and even phishing links. Therefore, one should be careful. Experts strongly advise against clicking on unknown or suspicious links, as doing so may result in the user’s device being infected and it can potentially lead to data theft.

To sum up, neither BJP nor PM Modi is offering any free recharge on the occasion of forming the government for the third term.

This story was originally published by Factly as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.