You've probably spotted a group of young guys outside Junction Shopping mall, on select days, masquerading as Airtel Kenya promotion agents. Their strategy is simple; they target you, walk up to you and present you with an Airtel SIM card saying it’s yours for free. Once you stop and lend them your ear, the lying begins.

They’ll begin by telling you that Airtel Kenya is running a promotion where lucky winners could win iPhones or Samsung Galaxy handsets by simply accepting the “free” SIM card. Once you take the SIM card they further inform you that you’ll have to pay KES 499 if you have won the phone.

Realizing that you might be getting suspicious, they begin stressing that the line is free of charge and that if you’ve won a phone they will give it to you on the spot if you pay the required KES 499, stressing that the KES 499 is a small amount compared to winning a phone worth more than KES 50,000. By this time most unsuspecting passersby decide to play along and see what happens.

You take the SIM card, unpack it and check if you’ve won. From our analysis, majority of not all who participate ‘supposedly’ win a phone as the small piece of paper inside the SIM card pack states though in reality, no one gets a phone, instead you are first forced to part with KES 499 for a gadget that “supposedly” boots your phone’s battery life, signal strength and also protects you from harmful radiations from your phone. We inquired from mobile phone technicians on the effectiveness of this gadget and we were informed that such gadgets usually have no effect on your phone.

Note, these ‘Airtel promotion agents’ first tell you that you could win a phone, the piece of paper inside the SIM card pack will state that you have won a phone but they end up giving you a gadget that supposedly boosts your phones’ performance.

After you part with the KES 499, they ask for an additional KES 300 as a technician fee to install the gadget on your phone. If you refuse to part with the money they in turn become very aggressive and would further threaten you that your SIM card won’t be registered if you fail to pay the required amount.

We got in touch with Airtel Kenya in reference to the above promotion and we were informed that Airtel Kenya is not running any promotions where users could win phones. The mobile service provider further advised that one should carefully get the terms of the promotion before participating.

From being attracted to a free SIM card, to the 'possibility' of getting a high end smartphone at KES 499, you will end up spending KES 800 for a SIM card and a gadget, that has no particular purpose.