Online Fraudster caught using Okonja- Iweala’s, Fashola’s names

A 34-year-old man who cloned the Facebook account of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance, and duped unsuspected members of the public has been arrested.
The suspected fraudster was arrested on Tuesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after he duped one Usman Ahmed of N100, 000.
This is contained in a statement signed by the commission’s spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.
He alleged that the suspect also cloned the Facebook accounts of the wives of Lagos State Governor, Mrs Abimbola Fashola, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Aisha Bala Muhammed.
Wilson added that also cloned was the Facebook account of the Director of the Abuja Geographical Information Systems (AGIS), Hajiya Jamilah Tangaza.
“In a post on the account, he claimed that the FCT had soft loan worth N10 million for disbursement to individuals but offered forms to interested persons at the rate of N100, 000.
“Unknown to the public that it was a scam, a certain Usman Ahmed paid the sum of N100,000 into a designated account with a new generation bank,” he alleged.
“Then, he went on a solicitation binge that fetched him thousands of Naira. In each of the instances, he devised clever baits to lure his victims.
“Once he successfully opened a Facebook account with the false identity of a Mrs Fashola, he began to send out messages, Wilson alleged, adding: “Soon, requests for friendship flooded his account”.
He stated the suspect exploited a significant number of people who wanted to be friends with the governor’s wife, adding that he directed some of them to meet with ‘`her personal assistant’’.
“Who in turn demanded for various sums of money from them in order to connect them with influential people in government and the society.
“Also, in the Facebook account he opened using the name and photograph of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, he claimed he had job offers and directed interested job seekers to her `schedule officer’.
“He also doubles as schedule officer, who in turn asked them to make payments into a designated bank account,” he added.
Wilson said the suspect, a graduate of Lagos State University, would have gone unnoticed until he overreached himself by cloning the Facebook’s account of Tangaza.
He, therefore, warned members of the public to be wary of relationships in the social media that come with solicitations of any kind, and circumspect in responding to gratuitous offers that look too good to be true. Source: (NAN)