Four persons who created a parody Facebook account with the credentials of the Inspector General of Police John Kudalor, and used it to dupe two police officers have been arrested by the Police in Accra.

The four - Haruna Danlad (23yrs), Timothy Egwu (23yrs), Matthew Ushie (24yrs) and Samuel Iwochukwuaged (23yrs) – created the fake Facebook account with the intention of defrauding police personnel desiring to take part in UN and AU missions.

According to the Director of the Cyber Crime Unit, Chief Superintendent Herbert Gustav Yankson, the account was being used to lure police personnel into paying various sums of money into a bank account number 0241623119341 to enable them be part of peacekeeping missions.

He said the account was detected on July 14 by his Unit which investigated the matter leading to the arrest of Danlad who also led the Police to Egwu, Ushie and Iwochukwuaged from theor hideouts They are said to have admitted in their caution statement that Egwu and Danlad helped in the opening of the bank account to aid the crime.

According to the Police fake Facebook account has attracted 497 friends, mostly police officers, noting that investigation revealed the account was used to dupe two officers of GHC300.

The four are expected to be processed for court.

Man hacks email to steal money

In a related development, a 38-year-old sales agent has put before an Accra Circuit Court for hacking an email address of a pharmaceutical company to defraud both the company and a bank.

Gadiel Baah Nyumutei on July 12, using the hacked e-mail, allegedly caused two banks to transfer GHC15,000 and 9,800 dollars from the account of the pharmaceutical company to another account.

When the account holders realised the transfer, the mounted a protest. While investigation into the case was going on, the company’s accountant received an email purporting to come from the chief executive of the pharmaceutical company instructing him to deposit GHC18,000 into the accused person’s account.

But a check by the accountant revealed the chief executive officer had not instructed any deposit of money into the accused person’s account.

Investigation led to the arrest of Nyumutei who pleaded not guilty in court. He has been admitted to bail in the sum of GHC40,000 with two sureties one of whom must be a civil servant who earns at least GHC1,500 a month.