Cameroonian conmen impersonating Ministers on Facebook to extort money from citizens in "childish" Scam Schemes

The regional section of the Criminal Investigations Department for the Central region, in Yaoundé, has just dismantled a network of conmen who were using the social networking tool Facebook for their criminal activities. These are 5 young people (one of them a prisoner operating from the Kondengui penitentiary in the capital), out of which two are still on the run.

By creating fake profiles supposedly belonging to Ministers and other managing directors on Facebook, the police explained, the members of this network were sending friend requests to citizens, who obviously accepted them, happy to have a Minister or MD as a “friend” on Facebook.

Having thus established contact, the conmen hiding behind the fake Ministers and MD profiles then offered to put their “friends” in touch with their private secretary to help them get jobs, professional attachments or public contracts.

The private secretary who was available only through his mobile telephone, and who was in reality an inmate of the Kondengui central prison, would then request a bribe that was exclusively handled through money transfers in the name of an accomplice who pretended to be the assistant of the MD or the Minister.

Once the money was received, the members of the criminal network would then share it amongst themselves and pick another victim to continue their illegal enterprise. Due to all the complaints lodged by citizens who fell prey to this network, the case was referred to the police who investigated, leading to the dismantling of this technologically-aware network of fraudsters.

(BIC)