Pretoria - Scammers have once again created a bogus Facebook account, purporting to be Communications Minister Faith Muthambi.
In March this year, the Minister distanced herself from a fake Facebook account which was falsely created using her misspelt surname.
Yesterday, Monday, it emerged that another fake Facebook account with Minister Muthambi’s picture at a BMF event and another one with President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has been falsely created.
Shortly after it was created, several people, including Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) lecturer Tshamano Makhadi and several government communicators, had already accepted the friend requests from the fake Facebook account.
“I only own one Facebook account and I have never given permission to anyone to create another Facebook account for me and I have since reported the account to Facebook,” the Minister said.
The scammers are already sending bogus letters purporting that it is coming from Minister Muthambi. In the bogus letter, the fraudsters are requesting people with “capabilities to carry out developmental projects” in the BRICS and SADC coalitions.
One of the letters read:
“Faith Muthambi
You are welcome. Fortunately, we are presently working tirelessly as a Sovereign State and also, under the supervision of the BRICS member states in conjunction with SADC (Southern African Development Community) is opening new opportunities to citizens of BRICS member States, individual or cooperate who are interested and dedicated to development in their respective communities and organizations to get funded.
In this case, clear processes need to be created for how the funds will be utilized to ensure they are actually diverted to project development objectives, where finance play a key role. Beneficiary Recipient can facilitate this by creating project development plans with an associated portfolio of projects and clear, transparent budget mechanisms for utilizing the international funding to the projects.
The SADC (Southern African Development Community) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) has utilized funding in the form of budgetary support provided to Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, amongst others, totalling € 58 billion in the period of 2012-2015. Individuals are liable to get up to the amount of € 5 million and cooperate organizations and NGO's could get up the sum of € 25 million. I have the liberty to enter you as a Beneficiary Recipient provided you have the capabilities to carry out developmental projects. Kindly let me know if you are willing to participate.
Kind Regards.”
Minister Muthambi said: “While we are investigating the creation of this false account, don’t be duped by these bogus letters”.
The Communications Minister also distanced herself from another bogus Facebook account with a profile picture updated on May 3, 2016.
On this fake account, Minister Muthambi is referred as the Minister of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (Australia) at Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. - SAnews.gov.za
