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It all started last week. It threw the social media into frenzy. It's about a purported report that Nigeria's President, Mohammadu Buhari had reportedly died in a London hospital. The rude-shocking announcement was not from a Nigerian news portal/website, it was from one Metro-uk.com. Could it be true that Nigeria's President – who in last year went for a Medical check-up abroad – be dead? Why would a foreign news website take it before Nigeria's? Who wants President Buhari dead? So many questions on the lips of Nigerians.
The Presidency was quick to dispel the reports as false, confirming that Buhari is hale and hearty.
But, investigations have revealed that the domain of ''Metro-uk.com'' was registered in the USA by a company that also owns ''Huffingtonpost-fm.com'' – that published President Buhari committing suicide. On Wednesday afternoon, huffingtonpost-fm.com reported that “Nigeria President’s security tightened after attempting Suicide”.
The fake metro report
The two fake websites are operated by the same company.
The same picture of Buhari was used in both stories, and the line “The President’s decision to receive medical care in a foreign land has angered some of his countrymen” was repeated word-for-word.
The owners of the two sites are listed as WILD WEST DOMAINS on whois.domaintools.com. The sites were registered in Arizona, United States.
“Huffington” was registered on November 19, 2016, and “Metro” on October 25, 2016.
The fake Huff Post report
The details of the fake website 'Metro-uk.com' that published Buhari's death include:
Domain name: metro-uk.com
Registry Domain ID: 2068743126_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar URL: http://www.wildwestdomains,com
Update Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:38Z
Creation Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:37Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:37Z
Registrar: Wild West Domains, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 440
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected]
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
PS:
The websites that published President Buhari's deaths are FAKE. They are parody of the original websites.
For Metro, the real web address of Metro, a high-circulating free morning newspaper, is metro.co.uk. The logos, or mastheads, of the two Metros are very different.
For Huffington Post, the real Huffington Post’s address is huffingtonpost.com (or huffingtonpost.co.uk for the UK edition).
The Presidency was quick to dispel the reports as false, confirming that Buhari is hale and hearty.
But, investigations have revealed that the domain of ''Metro-uk.com'' was registered in the USA by a company that also owns ''Huffingtonpost-fm.com'' – that published President Buhari committing suicide. On Wednesday afternoon, huffingtonpost-fm.com reported that “Nigeria President’s security tightened after attempting Suicide”.
The fake metro report
The two fake websites are operated by the same company.
The same picture of Buhari was used in both stories, and the line “The President’s decision to receive medical care in a foreign land has angered some of his countrymen” was repeated word-for-word.
The owners of the two sites are listed as WILD WEST DOMAINS on whois.domaintools.com. The sites were registered in Arizona, United States.
“Huffington” was registered on November 19, 2016, and “Metro” on October 25, 2016.
The fake Huff Post report
The details of the fake website 'Metro-uk.com' that published Buhari's death include:
Domain name: metro-uk.com
Registry Domain ID: 2068743126_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar URL: http://www.wildwestdomains,com
Update Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:38Z
Creation Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:37Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-10-25T02:09:37Z
Registrar: Wild West Domains, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 440
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected]
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
PS:
The websites that published President Buhari's deaths are FAKE. They are parody of the original websites.
For Metro, the real web address of Metro, a high-circulating free morning newspaper, is metro.co.uk. The logos, or mastheads, of the two Metros are very different.
For Huffington Post, the real Huffington Post’s address is huffingtonpost.com (or huffingtonpost.co.uk for the UK edition).
