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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned Nigerians to be wary of a Facebook clone account purporting to be that of the NCC.
“The fraudulent Facebook account with the name: “Nigerian Communications Commission – NCC – Info Zone” was opened by unidentified individuals, ostensibly to deceive and defraud unsuspecting members of the public, some of whom, as NCC believes, may have inadvertently signed on to the fake Facebook account,” the telecoms regulator revealed in a disclaimer issued this week by Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde.
“Members of the public are advised to disregard the Facebook Page and its contents in their entirety,” the NCC said.
NCC said it has alerted Facebook to pull down the fraudulent account.
Beware of this Page
Don’t visit this Facebook clone account: https://www.facebook.com/nccinfozone. The fake account is offering free data via a fraudulent site: https://ijustshare.net/free-airtime-and-data-bonus-for-all-networks/
As at the time of this report, 365 people already liked this fake NCC Facebook Account with 388 people following it. The account has this phone number: +234806954179.
Cloning menace
With over 2.7 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2020, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. Of all the accounts associated with those users, a portion of them are clones.
Facebook cloning occurs when the original identity of a user is stolen or copied and then passed off as the original. The impostor makes a copy of the original account; takes publicly available info, such as the name and photos of the original user and recreate it.
Not many people are immediately aware of a Facebook clone, also known as a cloning scam as in most cases, the cloned account will use the same name (or a close version) and send friend requests to the targeted person’s friends.
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NCC Alerts Facebook, Public On Cloned Account
READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
In the course of its regular online surveillance aimed at protecting telecoms consumers and industry stakeholders, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has discovered a spurious Facebook Account purporting to be that of the Commission. We have since contacted Facebook Team to take down the fake account.
The fraudulent Facebook account with the name: “Nigerian Communications Commission – NCC – Info Zone” was opened by unidentified individuals, ostensibly to deceive and defraud unsuspecting members of the public, some of whom, as NCC believes, may have inadvertently signed on to the fake Facebook account.
It is important to emphasize that the official, authentic and verified Facebook account of the Commission is: “NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION” with over 192,193 followers and the Commission strongly advises the general public and telecom consumers to beware of this cloned Facebook account, as the NCC has no affiliation whatsoever with it.
This is a typical case of profile cloning often used to create a fake profile identical to an original one, for the purpose of misleading and defrauding the unsuspecting general public.
Members of the public are advised to disregard the Facebook Page and its contents in their entirety.
The NCC, as a responsible organisation, will continue to take measures towards protecting telecoms consumers and industry stakeholders.
