Funke Akindele, Fathia Williams issue Fraud Alert

Hackers are all over the social media space. They are latching on the popularity of notable Nollywood celebrities such as Funke Akindele, Ramsey Noah Jnr, Adeolu Adekola and Faithia Williams to defraud unsuspecting followers.

Star actress Funke Akindele was first to issue a fraud alert during the week after she found that someone had set up a page using her image and was using the page to solicit for donation for a humanitarian project.

“That is not my page; it’s fake. I have not asked anyone for support or authorised anyone to solicit support for any project on my behalf. I have reported the page and I appeal to my fans not to fall for this and many attempts by some fraudulent people to defraud them,” she wrote, while denouncing the fake page.

Similarly, actress Faithia Williams, have called on Nigerians to stop glorifying fraud. She also denounced the several fake pages using her name and image to defraud people.

Faithia particularly mentioned a fake page on instagram identified as ‘@gra_ce657’ that has been using her image as profile picture to deceive unsuspecting followers. The actress stated that the user has continuously used her pictures and have been posting her ‘giveaway transactions in order to impersonate her’ and defraud people.

“I have been informed of that account using my image to scam people of their hard-earned monies. Let me state this clearly that I do not have anything to do with that account, scheme or anything that tells people to bring their monies. Please, beware of this account or any other account using my name or face for any illegal business.”

She added, “I know the country is hard and I know a lot of us are trying to survive, but please, we need to stop engaging in fraudulent activities and encouraging fraud or defending those, who do fraud simply because they flash money or they claim to have talent. Fraud is fraud; it is illegal and it hurts other people.”

Speaking also on the implication of defrauding people, Faithia said, “Many have been sent to early graves because of the fraudulent activities of some people. It is bad when we use celebrity image or status to scam people. Please note that fraud has consequences and let us not encourage it.”