The Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, has called for increased vigilance and cyber literacy in the fight against online scams.
He acknowledged that scammers often impersonate government officials, make enticing offers, and demand money from unsuspecting citizens.
The Minister intimated that such approaches are never legitimate, stressing that no minister or Member of Parliament will text a citizen to demand money in exchange for favours.
“I know we are all looking for opportunities, but no Minister of State, no Member of Parliament, will come on Facebook or TikTok, leave everything they have to do, and enter your inbox to greet you, ask how you are doing, and offer to help you. We have not even finished solving the problems in our constituencies.
“So when anybody makes such an approach, bear in mind that it is not legitimate. No minister, no MP, will ask you to pay 1,000 Ghana cedis for protocol. It is a scam. We have asked all state appointees to submit their official handles so we can get them properly verified,” he said.
The Ningo-Prampram MP revealed that someone had recently been defrauded of GHS64,000 by a scammer impersonating him, stressing the need for citizens to be cyber literate.
“I, for one, have all my accounts verified, but still, people are falling prey. In fact, looking at one of the accounts that defrauded somebody, I asked — did you even take your time to check? Because instead of MP for Ningo, it said MP for Bingo.
“The person was just so excited that Sam George had texted him about recruitment. He ended up losing 64,000 cedis. People need to be careful,” the Minister said.
