This study explores how young undergraduate students in Nigeria, aged 18-24 years, identify fake news, as well as their motivations for deliberately sharing news they identify as fake. The study employed a qualitative methodology. Data collection involved unstructured interviews with 20 participants who admitted that they engaged with fake news as deliberate sharers. The data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in fake news detection and dissemination. Findings from the study show that the participants rely on cues such as exaggerated content and distorted images to detect fake news. Contrary to prior research, findings from this study also show that some of the participants deliberately share fake news out of a sense of civic duty, aiming to inform others, while others were mostly motivated by financial gain. This study extends the literature by distinguishing between the behaviours of deliberate fake news sharers and passive consumers. The findings suggest that there is a strategic and deliberate use of exaggeration and social media for misinformation spread among deliberate fake news sharers. In addition, the findings of this study add a fourth construct which is ‘financial gratification’ to the existing 3 major constructs of the Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT).