from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – SOCIAL media criminals are on the prowl in Nigeria, impersonating the army chief to defraud unsuspecting citizens amid the defence forces’ war against terror.
Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), is the victim of the cyber crime crusade.
Onyema Nwachukwu, military spokesperson, said the Nigerian Army had been inundated with complaints of an increasing number of imposters, claiming to be on various social media platforms.
“The imposters have continued to perpetrate this mischief using the official portrait of the COAS, as profile picture on their various social media platforms,” Nwachukwu said.
He said it was imperative to state that this was not the first time imposters had attempted to impersonate the person of the COAS on social media platforms to dupe unsuspecting members of the public.
A new trend observed however, is the fixing of online/ virtual meetings on zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook and other online engagements with demand that participants share specific numbers which appear on their screens during such meetings with which the imposters then engage individually with the participants and subsequently defraud them.
The Nigerian Army has identified some 11 numbers as being frequently used by the suspected fraudsters.
Investigations are underway in the West African country battered by Islamist sects and bandits, largely in the north.
– CAJ News