While the country is battling to find a possible treatment and vaccine for the novel Coronavirus, some persons are taking advantage of social media platforms of government officials to dupe unsuspecting victims.
The latest political figure compelled to lodge a complaint about such questionable acts of impersonation is the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
According to the Ofoase-Ayirebi Member of Parliament, he has received several reports of people using fake social media accounts to demand money from unsuspecting victims in exchange for opportunities, in his name.
The Minister in a Facebook post, Tuesday, April 28, 2020 cautioned the general public to be wary of such fraudulent persons who have taken advantage of the existing global crisis to dupe people.
He said he has reported such activities in his name to appropriate security agencies for investigations to be carried out.
His post reads; “It has come to my notice that a good number of persons are falling victim to fraudulent persons purporting to be me on social media. Please note that I do not solicit for nor provide any protocol opportunities to people either in person or via social media. I urge you to ignore or report to the police any of such persons soliciting payments in my name. I have notified the National Security apparatus to investigate and apprehend such fraudsters.”
This is not the first a political figure has complained about such occurrence.
The former Deputy Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, lodged a second complaint at the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Criminal Investigations Department in February, about a fake Facebook account set up in his name.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey also issued a caution to Ghanaians in the same month, to be on the look for activities of such fraudulent people.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has on several occasions cautioned against the use of fake social media accounts to dupe members of the general public.
Since August 2019, Ghana’s Security Agencies have recorded a significant upsurge in the use of fake accounts, particularly on Facebook, to swindle unsuspecting citizens to part with various sums of money and other valuable items.
