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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Economy & business fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about economy & business. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

7,100 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoEconomy & business

Claim: SBI not fixed any service fee for atm withdrawal from 2020 June 1

Publisher’s rating: False

Fact Crescendo investigated a viral claim that SBI would impose a ₹25 charge for every ATM cash withdrawal starting June 1, 2020. The review traced the claim to a video report by Polimer TV that had been reshared through Helo App. It questioned whether the video was current, noting that the claim was circulating during the COVID-19 crisis, when the review said Indian banks were easing certain charges and restrictions. The review’s central finding was that the video was old, not a new announcement about a June 2020 fee change. The review dates the underlying report to 2017 and says that, after public opposition, SBI had already explained at the time that the information was untrue. It concludes that old, unverified material was being recirculated as if it described a current change. The excerpt does not provide the bank’s original statement or a current SBI fee schedule, so it supports the review’s conclusion about this particular viral claim and its provenance, rather than a full account of every SBI ATM charge.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

Un message, accompagné d’une photo, publié sur Facebook promet à 25 lecteurs qui y réagiront, et le partageront, de gagner une machine à coudre

Publisher’s rating: Tout est faux. Il s’agit d’une escroquerie. Les auteurs du message tentent d’hameçonner les personnes qui y répondraient, selon le très officiel Centre pour la cybersécurité Belgique (CCB).

The review examined a Facebook post offering sewing machines to 25 people who shared its photo and commented to participate. It reported that the post appeared on June 5 on a newly created page called “Concours couture,” whose founders were not identified. The post gave no names for the supposed consultants and said winners would be contacted through Facebook. The review also noted that the page had 74 followers, described as invisible, and that the giveaway post was riddled with spelling mistakes. The review checked the pictured machine against information about its model, the Brother Innov-is 55. It reported that the model was no longer listed on Brother’s website, that the latest comment about it on a well-known online sales site dated to January 2018, and that its instruction manual was printed in 2012. These details cast doubt on the post’s account that the machines were demonstration products belonging to current consultants. The Belgian Centre for Cybersecurity (CCB) assessed the post as a phishing attempt aimed at obtaining people’s data. The review quoted CCB press officer Andries Bomans, who pointed to the giveaway format and the page’s low engagement—64 likes and no reviews. He explained that cybercriminals commonly contact people through Messenger after they respond, then privately send a link to a fraudulent site, reducing the chance that the link will be reported before victims encounter it.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

Sur Facebook, une publication, renvoyant à un mini site, propose aux internautes de gagner un « coupon de 140 € ». Celui-ci serait offert par Colruyt en échange du partage du lien vers le mini-site.

Publisher’s rating: Il s'agit d'une arnaque, d'un hameçonnage. Colruyt n'a pas lancé une telle action sur les réseaux sociaux.

The review examined a Facebook post linking to a mini-site that promised a €140 Colruyt coupon for sharing the link. The site told visitors that Colruyt was offering free coupons and then presented them with a questionnaire. The review reports that Colruyt Group denied running the promotion and said it did not give coupons in exchange for sharing Facebook posts. Colruyt press officer Silja Decock told dpa that the circulating Facebook message did not come from the company and described it as phishing. She advised customers not to respond or provide their details. The review also quotes Belgium’s Federal Police Computer Crime Unit calling it a familiar type of scam. The review notes that the linked address was not Colruyt’s usual web address and did not begin with HTTPS. It also places the offer in the context of earlier fake Colruyt voucher schemes: Test-Achats had warned about similar mini-sites in 2016, and the review says Belgian victims had reportedly encountered this form of promised shopping voucher as early as 2014.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

ත්‍රිපෝෂ කම්හල පිලිබඳ නොමඟ යවනසුළු ප්‍රකාශක් | Misleading reports on total close-downhttps://archive.vn/cvImk of Thriposha factory

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned reports that the Thriposha factory in Ja-Ela had shut completely because it could not obtain maize, leaving about 300 employees at home and threatening supplies for infants and pregnant women. The investigation found that the factory’s production had temporarily stopped, but that this was not the same as closing the factory. The company said it continued distributing existing stocks according to health authorities’ requests and priorities. [S1: “දැනට ඔවුන් ළඟ ඇති ත්‍රිපෝෂ තොග, සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරීන්ගේ ඉල්ලීම් සහ ප්‍රමුඛතාව මත දිවයින පුරා බෙදා හරින බව පැවසීය.”] To check the closure reports, the review says it examined whether major media had reported the matter, contacted the Sri Lanka Thriposha Company, and then sought confirmation from a senior Health Ministry official and an Agriculture Department official. The company and ministry official both described a temporary production halt caused by difficulty obtaining maize suitable for human consumption at the government’s guaranteed price of Rs. 55 per kilogram. They said production was expected to resume after a solution was reached with government authorities. [S1: “කර්මාන්ත ශාලාව වසා දමා ඇති බවට පළ වන ප්‍රවෘත්ති අසත්‍ය බව පැවසූ ඔහු දැනට නිෂ්පාදන ක්‍රියාවලිය තාවකාලිකව නවතා ඇති බවත්, රජයේ බලධාරීන් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කර, විසඳුමක් ලබා ගෙන ඉක්මනින්ම නිෂ්පාදන ක්‍රියාවලිය ආරම්භ කරන බවත් අවධාරණය කළේය.”] The review also reports that the company called in only the staff needed under health rules, rather than sending the entire workforce home. Its account of the company chairman’s comments gives 235 employees in total, says around 35 workers from outside the district had not yet returned because of COVID-19, and says fewer than 100 employees were being called in daily. The evidence therefore distinguishes a production stoppage and reduced staffing from a complete factory shutdown; the review concluded that the headline and related Facebook posts were misleading. [S1: “අපේ ආයතනයේ සේවකයන් 235ක් ඉන්නවා. පිට දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල සිටින 35 ක් විතර කොරෝනා නිසා තාම ආවෙ නෑ. සෞඛ්‍යාරක්ෂාව ගැන හිතලා දිනකට 100කට අඩු සේවක ප්‍රමාණයක් සේවයට කැඳවන්නේ.”]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

In de Europese Commissie werd op 27 mei een eerste voorstel gedaan rond een Europees herstelfonds. Met dat herstelfonds wil commissievoorzitter Ursula von der Leyen de economische crisis na corona aanpakken in Europa. De rol van België in dat herstelfonds is op sociale media flink in opspraak gekomen: zo schrijft de nieuwssite Redactie.24 dat "België 13,5 miljard euro zal moeten betalen", terwijl "de Vlamingen de grootste netto-betaler zijn in de EU". Maar klopt dat wel?

Publisher’s rating: De claims in het artikel zijn deels fout en misleidend. Enerzijds is het niet mogelijk om Vlaanderen met andere lidstaten te vergelijken omdat andere internationale regio's nog meer afstaan per capita. Anderzijds zijn de "13,5 miljard euro" en de "EU-belastingen" uit hun context getrokken.