KAMPALA – Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has Thursday June 28, warned public about a fake social media account in his particulars defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.
“This is to inform the general public to ignore the social media scam. It is a fake account with false information and created by fraudsters using my particulars as Minister of Finance and Economic Development of the Republic of Uganda to defraud the public,” Kasaija who is also an MP for Buyanja County said in a statement.
Minister Kasaija added that “the social media misinformation and scam that fraudulently purports to solicit money from unsuspecting Uganda and the international community to alleged grants that are on offer from government or international finance partners.”
Minister Kasaija further warned the public not to supply contacts, personal or bank details “AND DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY but report to the nearest police station for assistance”
Police yesterday arrested one Geoffrey Kalele, a resident of Namutumba District over allegedly operating a Facebook account in the names of the Inspector General of Police Martin Okoth Ochola.
The CID spokesman, Vincent Ssekate said Kalele opened up the Facebook account between March and June and has been using it to defraud the public.
Mr Ssekate said on Wednesday that Kalele has also been using the fake account to give orders to officers and some unsuspecting ones would follow them.
Upon questioning, Kalele accepted his crime and confessed to coning and defrauding people. It is said that he had so far collected Ush 700,000 from the public which he used to pay school fees for his children.
The government recently introduced tax on social media ‘to stop gossip’ and fraudsters from exploiting the public.
President Yoweri Museveni pushed for the social media law back in March. He wrote a letter to Minister Kasaija insisting that the revenue collected by the social media tax would help the country “cope with consequences of olugambo [gossiping]”.
But he argued there should be no tax on internet data as it was useful for “educational, research or reference