PM Modi-Led Govt Offering ₹5,000 I-Day Cash Gifts To Citizens? No, Viral Link Is A Scam

Claim

The PM Narendra Modi-led Central government is offering ₹5,000 cash rewards to citizens, on the occasion of Rakshabandhan (August 9) and Independence Day (August 15), upon clicking an external link.

The archived version of the post can be seen here.

Fact

Newschecker clicked on the external link, which directed us to a website featuring the images of PM Narendra Modi, BJP’s symbol, and a virtual scratch card.

“Through Jan Dhan Yojana, everyone will get ₹5000 free in their account. Scratch the card to get money in your account…Every Indian citizen gets a gift of up to ₹5000 in their account under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Click here to transfer to your bank account,” read the Hindi text on the website, along with another link that asked the user whether to “receive payment” using UPI apps PhonePe or PayTM.

Newschecker then ran a keyword search for “PM Modi government ₹5,000 giveaways Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana”, which did not lead us to any credible news reports nor official announcements of such a scheme. Also, the URL of the website, https://wh1463450.ispot.cc/, did not read like an official government portal, further raising our doubts. The official website of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) also did not have any announcement on such a giveaway.

We next ran the viral link past Scam Detector, a major online fraud prevention tool, which assigned it a low trust score of 38.4/100, along with the tags, “Questionable. Controversial. Flagged.”

“The Scam Detector website Validator gives ispot.cc a low trust score on the platform: 38.4. It signals that the business could be defined by the following tags: Questionable. Controversial. Flagged.. We are confident about our score as we also partner with other high-tech, fraud-prevention companies that found the same issues. So, why this low score? We came up with the 38.4 score based on 53 aggregated factors relevant to ispot.cc’s industry. The algorithm detected possible high-risk activity related to phishing, spamming, and other factors noted in the Questionable. Controversial. Flagged. tags above. Long story short, we caution you about using this website,” read the detector’s review.

Not The First Such UPI Scam

Newschecker has already debunked similar viral “giveaways,” such as one falsely claiming that RCB was offering ₹5,000 cash rewards to fans upon clicking an external link or scratching a virtual card, after they won their maiden IPL title on June 3, 2025. We learnt that fake giveaways, often disguised as contests or prize promotions, are one of the many traps scammers use to steal your personal data, money, or even gain access to your accounts.  Newschecker had also earlier debunked a fake giveaway, claiming that the government would send money to citizens on the occasion of PM Modi’s birthday.

Some of the key ways to protect yourself from UPI frauds are to avoid unknown calls, messages and fake apps; enable security features; track bank messages; and exercising caution with payment requests — Remember, receiving money does not require a PIN. In case of falling victim to an UPI fraud, immediately inform your UPI provider and the bank about the fraudulent transaction, along with filing a complaint on the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) or cybercrime portal.

Also Read: Illegal Bangladeshis Carrying Spears To Attack Police In Assam? Here’s The Truth Behind Viral Clip

Sources
Scam Detector tool