The organizers of Ghana Photo Model (GPM), an online competition, have been obliged to reimburse voters more than GHS40,000 because they allege the contestant rigged the voting process to her benefit. Furthermore, there is ample proof that the organizers’ employees participated in irregularities.
The competition’s organizers, FUN FUSION, assert that one social media influencer named Chris Nunies—whose real name is Christian Awudey—is the contest sponsor. They also accuse Empress, one of the top competitors, of rigging the voting process and forcing other competitors to stop so she can win.
Additionally, they asserted that they had proof that the aforementioned Empress had asked them—the tournament organizers—to ensure her victory even before the nominations had opened. Hence, in light of such accusations, they have chosen to call off the entire competition and give voters their money back, despite the fact that the competition’s terms and conditions stipulate that voting money is non-refundable.
The organizer’s move begs the question of why they would wait until the very end to accuse a competitor of rigging the entire competition even before it began. Why did they hold off on disclosing all of this until after she had received almost GHS9,400 in votes rather than disqualifying her right away?
EVIDENCE AND STAFF IRREGULARITIES
The three front-runners, Empress, Tyga, and Schola, have received at least three different WhatsApp messages from staff members or administrators of the organizers’ page, in which the staff members express their support for the contestants and, in two of the cases, even make the actual promise to help them win on the other contestants’ blind side.
As long as participants can encourage more people to vote, the aforementioned staff members of the organizers gave the contestants the assurance that they would prolong voting expressly to help certain contestants get their votes through without other contestants knowing. Given that each vote costs GHS1, this will result in a larger profit for the organizers.
Puretvonline.com spoke to the Managing Editor of Techfocus24, Samuel Duwoana to assist in investigating the bad conduct of GPM.
Find screenshots of the separate conversations between the organizers and the three contestants:
When Techfocus24 first learned about the organizers’ actions and approached them about it, they acted aggressively and even threatened legal action if they were to be disparaged in any media.
However, after confronting the concrete evidence, they began contacting the specific contestants they had pledged to support, threatening to disqualify them if they revealed private discussions to a media or other contestants.
Ultimately, they had to swallow their pride and start the process of refunding every voter in the contest after realizing they could not continue to deny the overwhelming evidence. They have stated that they will finish the refund procedure in seven weeks, yet it is still running.
In the meantime, Chris Nunies, the contest sponsor, informed Techfocus24 Editor via Facebook that two of the administrators had been replaced and that reimbursements were in the process of being handled.
FULL FACTS
The reality of the situation is that the persons behind Ghana Photo Model competition are a group of people going by the name FUN FUSION. The goal of the competition is to persuade young women with attractive AI images to become photo models for wig companies.
As per the game’s rules, the AI photo of each competitor in person will determine 30% of the final decision, with the public voting making up the remaining 70%.
For the contest’s first and second phases, the organizers were able to get two short codes. Voting for the 40 participants in the first phase was conducted on FayaVotes using the short code 928310#. Voting for the second round, which featured ten participants, was conducted on CastVotes using the short code 447174#.
In fact, the usage of two voting platforms for a single contest has drawn criticism from some experts. They contend that it is erratic and raises red flags, which the competitors ought to have raised right away.
The rule that allows the organizers to prolong voting as many times as they choose is another matter that worries experts. Actually, the organizers took full use of that chance. Contestants began asking queries as a result of the four extensions they were allowed to make.
Another concerning development regarding the voting extensions was that a few of the top five competitors claimed to have learned of the extension via other regulars rather than the organizers.
When Debbie, one of the contestants, asked why she hadn’t heard about the extension, the admin on the organizers’ WhatsApp page responded that they assumed she had given up on the competition. Debbie then questioned how, given her current ranking in the top five, they could be “thinking” for her.
In fact, Debbie correctly informed them that, even though she had given up, she was still entitled to receive all correspondence intended for the top five as long as she remained in the top five.
DIVIDE AND RULE STRATEGY
However, it soon became apparent that the organizers were purposefully reaching out to each contestant personally rather than setting up a shared platform where they could speak with each contestant collectively to guarantee transparency.
The organizers provided the justification that not everyone is interested in joining WhatsApp groups in response to questions from some of the contenders over the lack of a single platform for participants. Additionally, they felt obligated to safeguard each contestant’s privacy in their capacity as organisers.
However, because of the way that contestants were contacted individually, organizers’ personnel were able to publicly endorse some contestants while remaining silent about others.
Find below some of the worrying WhatsApp messages the staff of the organizers sent to at least three separate contestants, Empress, Tyga, and Schola, in the name of encouraging them to get more votes.
However, in their usual divide-and-rule manner, they chastised Debbie, telling her, “You came into the competition alone, so compete alone,” and accused her of falling for Empress’s deceptive tactics.
It is evident from this that keeping the participants apart, without their knowledge, makes it easier for the organizers to continue manipulating each one of them in order to increase the number of votes they receive while pretending that none of the other contestants are aware of it.
Below is a WhatsApp message that Tyga received from an organizer, stating that they were assisting her without the other participants’ knowledge.
The GPM organisers then went back to the participant, accusing her of exposing them to other contestants after they attempted to assist her, when Techfocus24 obtained this evidence and challenged them. The organisers’ staff members also warned that they would face consequences from their employer should they disclose the deception.
After much back and forth between Techfocus24 and the organizers and the contestants, as well as multiple deadline extensions and direct insults from the organizers to the contestants and Techfocus24 Editor, the organizers finally gave in and decided to cancel the competition and refund voters.
According to Techfocus24’s checks, the short code 928310# used for the competition’s first phase was derived from short code 928, which was first assigned by the National Communications Authority (NCA) to the East Legon-based Arkesel Company Limited. Additionally, the NCA sub-allocated 928310# to Anchora Technologies Limited, the company that owns the FayaVotes platform.
After contacting Anchora Technologies, Techfocus24 discovered that they…
In the meantime, CastVotes has been sub-allocated the extension 447174# by appsNmobile, who are the primary licence holders for the phase two short code, 447174#, which is also a derivative of short code 447.
Additionally, Techfocus24 has contacted the three telecoms whose networks the two short codes that allowed voters to use them were activated on. Each of them is investigating the issue in order to respond to us regarding how they safeguard the interests of clients in circumstances such as these, in which votes are used to manipulate a process in order to obtain more money from clients.
RESPONSE FROM ORGANIZERS
When Techfocus24 first contacted the organizers, they were contemptuous. They eventually turned nasty and even threatened legal action. Later, once the contest was stopped and a refund was processed, Chris Nunies, the contest sponsor, said Techfocus24 had persuaded participants to stop voting because they were interested in one of the contestants.
Subsequently, he acknowledged that the organisers had replaced or dismissed two administrators, which makes it evident that the messages they gave to the candidates were not consistent.
Additionally, Chris Nunies made the decision to subtly threaten Techfocus24 by stating that he is a brand with legal support. It’s obvious that these individuals are used to threatening contestants with lawsuits and disqualifications in order to intimidate them into silence, so they reasoned that they could do the same to the media.
Puretvonline.com and Techfocus24 continue to track the refunds’ status and will update readers on any new information.