A message about the government purportedly introducing a new scheme called the 'Pradhan Mantri Ramban Suraksha Yojana' is viral. As per the claim, beneficiaries will receive a sum of Rs 4000 upon registration as financial assistance for "free treatment" during COVID-19. The text claims that the sender of the message had received the amount. It carries a registration link.

Alt News has received several requests to verify the message.

Fact-check

The message makes false claims. The accompanying link redirects to a blog post, whereas all government website URLs end with 'gov.in' or 'nic.in'. We performed a keyword search and did not find any official notification on the scheme either. When a user clicks on the link, the post below comes up. It has over 4 lakh likes.

Several users have also commented that they received Rs 4,000 using the registration link. When a user clicks on the link, they are prompted for their phone number. Apart from this, there is no other link or any other information about the scheme. The link seems to redirect to a website meant to harvest phone numbers.

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PIB Fact Check had clarified on August 18 that the viral message is fake.

Similar messages have been shared in the past. Recently, a false claim about the 'Pradhan Mantri Unemployment Allowance Scheme 2021' went viral. It stated that as part of the scheme, all unemployed youth would be granted Rs 3,500 every month. You can read our fact-check debunking the claim here.