At the end of May 2021, the media went around the news about the impostor, who, introducing himself as an employee of Microsoft, convinced the authorities of the African country to pay him a huge amount in exchange for life service of the operating system. We checked if it was so.

Here's what you can learn from the news.

The man who introduced himself as John Duson in October 2019 contacted the Zimbabwe government. He called himself an employee of Microsoft and told officials that Bill Gates allegedly sent him to conclude a one -time company to maintain company products. Thanks to cooperation, according to Duson, the country's leadership could stop worrying about monthly software accounts. John promised to update the Microsoft Office package and Windows 7 operating system (to Windows 10). The country's leadership believed the man and allowed him to his computers. John updated the programs and held a three -day seminar: he taught ITishnikov how to do the same. Having finished work, Dusus took $ 40 million and flew to a private plane.

What was the surprise of the leaders of Zimbabwe, when a year later Microsoft set them an account again. Politicians realized that they were deceived, contacted the corporation’s office and found out that they did not know any John Duson there. Moreover, the company did not send its employees on a business trip to Africa. It turned out that all Dusason's work was reduced to Windows updating to the tenth version. True, Microsoft provided this opportunity to all its users for free and without the help of Duson.

At the moment, politicians have no hooks where to look for John, and the police continues to search. Officers believe that Dusus, perhaps, is located in South Africa.

With certain details, this text has spread such Russian -speaking resources as Medialeaks, Geekville, "Notebook" igiuides And a row others sites. Some of them referred to the publication on the English -language resource BokDailyfrom which a photograph of the swindler was borrowed.

And indeed, at least four foreign resources (Bok Daily, MadyCap, Global Nea, Ihlayanews) The same text appeared on May 24, earlier than on any of the Russian sites. And nowhere else. There are no such news even when searching in Zimbabvian Sean.

A more detailed study shows that first of all the indicated news was posted precisely on Global Nea, however, in practice, this does not matter. The fact is that if you walk on all four sites, we will see that the headlines and other materials presented on them coincide. For example, "The monkey, whose brain was chipped by Ilon Musk, after several hours of video game, his head exploded". Or: “One of Trump's supporters left a four -foot stroke on the capitol floor. The DNA test will determine its real owner ". Or: "The four -year -old girl accidentally donated $ 500,000 to Nigerian spammers from the credit card of her father". As you probably guessed, we are dealing with the next satirical news site and its mirrors. The most famous such Russian resource - IA "Panorama" - does not hide its comic orientation, but they often happen to it Casuses In the form of reprints more serious sites. Of course, does not bypass like fate and materials with Global Nea, where there is no corresponding warning.

However, attentive readers could suspect that the news of Zimbabwe was fictitious, and according to other indirect signs. For example, it is obvious that in a sovereign and relatively peaceful country there should be its official representation Microsoft (albeit sometimes responsible for several countries at once) and officials do not need a “person from Bill Gates”. In addition, these days, such operations can be carried out on the Internet - in particular, the corporation has Stage For residents in Zimbabwe. The country is involved in others projectsrelated to Microsoft.

A surprisingly clear photograph of a fraudster is very similar to those that are automatically generated by special sites. In addition, it was merciful and served as a “second” inside the same material. $ 40 million even in 100 dollar bills weigh 400 kg, and in general, it is unlikely that computers of one or more buildings, albeit in decades, may require the costs of this order. And finally, John Doeson (so the surname is recorded in the original news) - this is “Son John Dow", That is, an anonymous in foreign document management. However, the last fact could theoretically come from the swindler himself.

So, the news that caused the excitement in a number of Russian media, as we became convinced, is satirical.