Fake Facebook profiles on the rise in Cameroon

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

The use of hacked or phony Facebook accounts in Cameroon where malicious users present themselves in profiles impersonating fictitious or real persons is reportedly on the rise.

                This is happening at a time when the number of facebook users in Cameroon has increased by more than 16 percent during the last six months according to social bakers, a social media analytics platform.

                The analytics platform says about 2.85 percent of the country’s population and more than 70 percent of Internet users in Cameroon are on facebook.

                Currently, many Cameroonian actors, musicians, pastors and politicians are currently facing the challenge of identity theft. The most notorious over the last years concerns ministers, Directors and other high ranking civil servants.

                Just recently, it emerged that a Facebook profile of someone claiming to be the the Governor of the North Region, John Abate Edi'I surfaced.

                This account with a portrait of the Governor allegedly created by unidentified individuals had already about hundred friends.

                Jean AbatéEdi'i who is also the regional President of the committee to fight against cyber criminality in the North in a recent press release said he has "never" created a Facebook account.

                This impersonation of North Governor on Facebook comes a few months after Albert Roger Milla, Edgar Alain MebeNgo'o, BasileAtanganaKouna, Yang Philemon and a host of others suffered the same fate.

                The Minister of Water and Energy, Dr. BasileAtanganaKouna, issued a statement on February 16, 2016 in which he claimed to be a victim of identity theft on social networks including Facebook. In the statement, the MINEE Boss explained that "cybercriminals have created and maintain fake Facebook accounts allegedly on his behalf."

                In September 2015, Alain Edgar MebeNgo'o, former defense minister, also issued a communiqué on the existence of a fake Facebook profile in his name.

                In another communiqué the same month signed by the former Director of Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s Office, Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroonians were informed that unscrupulous persons had created fake Facebook accounts, impersonating the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang.

                Befre then, the Director General of SONARA and several other personalities also published similar press releases to deny the existence of their Facebook accounts.

                According to Ngwa John a Cyber Security expert who spoke to the Median, “while some criminals create profiles with the names of top government officials in order to dupe ignorant internet users or defame the officials, others do so to extort huge sums of money from foreigners; a practice generally referred to as scamming”.

                In 2014, Facebook announced that around 83 million of the profiles on its site were illegitimate. This means that 8.7 per cent of users of the social media site are in breach of the company’s terms and conditions.

                With this unprecedented increase in identify theft, Cyber Security experts are expressing the need for government to step up the fight through “legal and awareness tools”.

                In Cameroon, the December 21, 2010, law on electronic communication specifies sanctions for crimes associated with the misuse of ICTs. The National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ANTIC) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (ART) also have the expertise to track down cyber criminals.