Scammers have hacked the social media profile of a Government Minister and are using her account to solicit private information from unsuspecting citizens.
Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis told the T&T Guardian one of her two online profiles had been hacked and she had not had access to it in months.
Robinson-Regis said she had made a report about the profile and following the telephone conversation with the T&T Guardian directly reported the profile to Facebook as being fraudulent.
However, for the past few weeks, the person who had taken over Robinson-Regis’ account has been soliciting private information from citizens connected to the account.
The minister said, “ I have no knowledge of this..they are not to send any information and it should be reported to the Cyber Crime Unit of the Police Service.”
Jerene Charles said she first got a friend request from the account a few months ago and thought nothing of it.
However, last week a message from Camille Robinson-Regis account came to her inbox asking whether she had signed up for a new government assistance programme.
When she asked for more information, the sender replied saying:
“I mean the alleviation scheme set up by the Government to help improve the standard of living of the people.”
A request followed later for private information to be sent to an email address.
Robinson-Regis said she was concerned that people would fall for the lure and noted that she would not make any such request on a social media site.
Robinson-Regis said her Facebook account had been hacked twice, with her being blocked from the account in the first instance.
She said, I have no knowledge of this..they are not to send any information and it should be reported to the Cyber Crime Unit of the Police Service
Ministers and ministries responsible for their own social media
Yesterday, Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie said there was no over-arching communications strategy or social media policy for the dissemination of information from government programmes.
“The policy is basically that all ministries are responsible for their own communication and are encouraged to use social media to communicate.
“We are all aware of the advantages and potential threats and every ministry has a communication staff and would include people that are adept at dealing with these issues,” he added.
He said all ministers had their personal accounts and would engage the public in ways they found suitable.
“It is a social media tool. You have fake profiles and social media issues that arise whether you are a minister or not.
“We all need to be careful and to ensure we take the necessary precautions to minimise the occurrence of these things,” he added.
Report to police
Head of the Cyber Crime Unit, ASP Amos Sylvester, in a brief telephone interview yesterday said there had been no reports of the hacking of social media accounts but acknowledged it was an issue his unit was capable of investigating.
He advised that the public to be more vigilant and cautious about information shared online.
“If anybody was to set up anything on social media, saying that they should send money or personal information then that is to be avoided.
“I would advise people not to send their information, call or visit the person contacting you in their offices.
“Social media in this country is not used as a formal method of communication, it is used just to share information,” Sylvester said.
He said if someone’s account was hacked and being used for fraudulent or nefarious purposes, they could make a police report.
The police would then send the information to the Cyber Crime Unit for further investigation.