Astana, 22 October. Posts circulating in Kazakhstan about special mortgage terms for teachers, medical workers and civil servants are often placed by companies selling advice on taking out loans rather than by new government programmes, the Centre for Countering Disinformation has warned.
Such companies tailor their advertising to the audience: teachers are offered a "Mortgage for Educators", medical staff "Housing for Doctors", civil servants a "Special Programme for Civil Servants". In the centre's assessment, readers get the impression that a separate state housing programme has appeared for each profession, although these are often the same mortgage offers available to people in different professions. "This approach helps attract the attention of potential clients. A person sees a familiar profession in the headline and may decide that a new programme has appeared especially for them," the centre explained.
In other words, a teacher, a doctor and a civil servant are often offered the same mortgage, with only the headline of the advert changed.
According to the centre, such headlines create false expectations: people spend time searching for special offers that do not exist and pay for advice, believing they cannot get a mortgage without an intermediary. The centre named three signs that a post should be double-checked. "If an advertisement contains no links to the official terms of the programme, offers details only after payment or promises guaranteed loan approval, the reliability of the information should be checked further," it warned.
What it means: Paid advice is being sold on social media under the guise of separate state programmes for teachers, doctors and civil servants, while the mortgage offers behind such headlines are often the same for everyone.
Who benefits: According to the centre, the intermediaries who earn money from paid advice. Borrowers lose out: they spend time searching for non-existent benefits and pay for what they could learn free of charge from the official terms of the programmes.
Background: The Centre for Countering Disinformation urged people to check information about mortgage programmes against official sources and not to make financial decisions based solely on social-media posts.
List of sources used: Kursiv
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
