Ghana Police arrests 12 cyber fraudsters for impersonating Ministers, MPs, other prominent individuals

The police has arrested 12 suspects for impersonating prominent persons including Ministers of State, Members of Parliament (MPs), Heads of government institutions and corporate entities on social media.

Police personnel are searching for over 25 others for their involvement in the same unlawful act.

The suspects namely, Gideon Kove alias Billions, Felicia Nanewortor, Carl Kristal, Safari Zatey, Eric Acquah alias “Cent Mona”,Richard Agbadzi, Isaac Dortsue alias “Barajah”, Samuel Gadre, Moses Otchie alias “Razak”, Yonnah Boso, Sterling Kwame Doe and Wisdom Tornyie were currently assisting the Police investigation and would be arraigned to face justice.

A news brief from the police said investigation established that the modus of the criminal syndicate was to impersonate or hack into the social media accounts of prominent persons, including Ministers of State, MPs, Heads of government institutions and corporate entities to defraud unsuspecting victims of various sums of money by promising them jobs, scholarships, publication of fake promotional advertisements and sale of products among others.

It said as part of the operation, 973 fake social media accounts created by the suspects in the names of these prominent persons and corporate entities had been pulled down.

The brief said 785 of the fake accounts were in the names of MPs, 62 in the names of security officials,136 for Ministers of State, Ambassadors and some heads of institutions.

It said the police also recovered 32 mobile phones, three laptops and 54 SIM cards used by the suspects to commit their crimes.

The brief said the operation to clamp down on cyber-related crimes had been institutionalised and urged anyone who had fallen victim to any of the above-mentioned crimes to contact 0249850601 for further Police action. “This is a dedicated number solely for this exercise,” it added.

Source: GNA