Scammers
have cloned the Facebook account of Nigeria’s celebrity pastor and
three-time presidential candidate, Rev. Chris Okotie, and are using it
to extort money from the public, his spokesman warned in a statement on
Thursday.
Account
cloning is when scammers copy a user’s Facebook profile picture onto a
new account along with the user’s name and use the new account for
various scams.
Ladi
Ayodeji, Director of Media and Communications Strategy at Household of
God Church, Okotie’s church, disclosed that at least two of such
accounts have been created.
“In
one of the accounts, they are sending mails to Rev Okotie’s supposed
friends soliciting for donations for a purported kidney patient that
Rev. Chris Okotie allegedly intends to send to a Saudi Arabian hospital
for treatment,” Ayodeji said.
The
requests are false and do not emanate from Okotie, the spokesman said.
“The reverend does normally not engage in public fund raising,” he said.
He
added: “In 26-year history of his church, there has never been a time
when he (Okotie) solicited for funds from the public for any project.
These criminals have ignored our instructions to shut down these fake
Facebook accounts.”
The matter has already been reported to Facebook for action, Ayodeji said.
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