Joseph Kumah, the Kintampo North Member of Parliament, has expressed concern over the nation’s growing prevalence of online fraud.
He said that Ghanaians are losing a lot of money to this kind of scam, which frequently uses impersonation techniques.
The MP disclosed in an interview that people are often conned by those who improperly exploit their identities as MPs and other public officials.
He underlined that immediate action is required to stop this threat and protect the country.
He said, “There is an increase in con artists using social media identity theft and impersonation to con Ghanaian youth and people from all walks of life.” At least ten to fifteen individuals in Kintampo North alone have been defrauded in the name of the MP via Facebook.
Identity theft is becoming a serious national security issue and is now at worrying proportions. It has to be handled as a national concern. We are losing millions of cedis worth of wealth and priceless human resources to the wrong people. These folks need to be rescued.”
One of the issues the nation has been dealing with for some time now is cyber fraud.
According to Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority, Ghana suffered direct financial losses of GH¢49.5 million as a result of cyber fraud operations in 2023 during the months of January and June.
Only a small portion of instances submitted to state authorities were included in the number, and unreported cases may have resulted in greater financial losses than those documented thus far.
With the creation of the National Cyber Security, Ghana initiated the National Cybersecurity Awareness in 2017.
Ghana scored 86.69% in online security, one of the index’s main dimensions, in the same study. This figure is in accordance with Ghana’s performance on the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI).
