“Dear friends, malicious individuals are at it again. They have created a fake Instagram account under my name. I want to inform you all that I DO NOT have an Instagram account and please don’t respond to any Information coming from that profile. It is a scam account,” Aceng posted on her social media.
Unidentified fraudsters have set up an email
and social media account in the names of Health Minister, Jane Ruth Aceng and the
Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr. Diana Atwine.
The fraudsters are using
the accounts to send up messages to unsuspecting members of the public,
according to the Health Minister Spokesperson, Emmanuel Ainebyona.
“They are trying to defraud people using the
Ministers and the Health PS’s identity, so people need to be very careful,"
Ainebyona said. The two senior health Ministry officials fear that
duplicating their accounts will lead to the spread of false and misleading
information.
Aceng has since shared a message on her social
media warning friends and her followers that her identity has been mimicked for
unscrupulous reasons.
"Dear friends, malicious individuals are at it
again. They have created a fake Instagram account under my name. I want to
inform you all that I DO NOT have an Instagram account and please don’t respond
to any Information coming from that profile. It is a scam account,” Aceng
posted on her social media.
For Atwine, the fraudsters have setup a Gmail account. Both Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng and Dr. Diana Atwine are at the center
of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. By virtue of the offices they hold, they
have been passing out vital information to the public on behalf of the Health
Ministry.
They are also collecting donations on behalf of
the COVID19 National Task Force. Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, says those
impersonating the Senior Health Ministry officials will be apprehended and
charged with offensive communication.
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He has advised the Health Ministry to share the information with their Cybercrime department for immediately follow-up.
Enanga also disclosed that police is already holding some people for spreading
false information on COVID-19.
