Fake News Alert: Famous Egyptian composer Omar Khairat not to perform in Doha

Doha: Rumors and fake news have been circulating online in social media platforms claiming the famous Egyptian composer Omar Khairat to perform in Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). 

QNCC has officially denied that the celebrated Egyptian composer will be performing at their venue, marking it the latest of a series of fake event announcements circulating on social media.

The false announcement originated from a fake Instagram account called ‘ticketinboxoffice,’ which claims to be an accredited ticketing box office sales point.  

The operators of this type of fake accounts attempt to steal people’s identities and money by spreading false information in the hopes users will naively click on their links and make a money transfer. 

The fake announcement claims the concert to be scheduled for April 11, 2025 at QNCC’s Al Mayassa Theatre, which has been proven false by official QNCC account. 

Social media users are highly advised to be cautious and smart in their daily use of the internet.

The proper way to avoid being scammed is to rely solely on accredited official channels and sources. 

Otherwise, there are several clues and inconsistencies pointing to a fraudulent nature of an announcement: 

1. An official source such as the QNCC has publicly addressed the announcement as fake. 
2. The promoting fake account shows signs of suspicious engagement metrics, with an implausible ratio of followers to comments and likes. A genuine real account should have a reasonable ratio between their followers, likes, and comments, demonstrating real engagement with accounts of real people. 
3. The account misspells important hard-to-miss terminology such as Doha being spelled Duha. 
4. The account has very few posts in comparison to what would be expected from a professional genuine account, with a noticeable repetition of the same post throughout. 

Screen grab with pointers at some of the clues of a fake account spreading rumours online. 

The Peninsula advises its readers to be extra cautious surfing the web in general and social media in specific, as this is not an isolated incident with online scammers being recently relentless in their pursuit of robbing residents of Qatar.