Unknown fraudsters have impersonated Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals, and Mudashiru Obasa, the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, via phone numbers.
Olusegun Dada, the special assistant to President Tinubu on social media, said that Obasa’s phone number was hacked and misused on WhatsApp.
His WhatsApp line was hacked and his voice cloned by the scammers. His office put out a statement. Y’all be careful out there https://t.co/APGwOGs8x9— Daddy D.O (@DOlusegun) June 26, 2024
Alake also said on Wednesday that he was not associated with a phone number being used as his on WhatsApp.
This is coming amid the National Identification Number (NIN) data breach scandal.
READ ALSO: ALERT: XpressVerify, a Private Website, Has Access to Registered Nigerians’ Data and Is Making Money From It
“There is an individual using the phone number +234 707 743 7582 on WhatsApp, pretending to be me. Please, be aware that this person is a fraudster and has no affiliation with me, my team, or anyone in my office,” Alake posted on X.
“I urge everyone to ignore any communication from this impostor. We are currently working with the authorities to identify this individual and ensure that they face the consequences of their actions.”
There is an individual using the phone number +234 707 743 7582 on WhatsApp, pretending to be me. Please, be aware that this person is a fraudster and has no affiliation with me, my team, or anyone in my office.I urge everyone to ignore any communication from this impostor. We… pic.twitter.com/7ycc72wRrk— Dele Alake (@AlakeDele) June 26, 2024
Usman Lade, one of the targeted persons, revealed a fraudster contacted him using Obasa’s phone number on Tuesday.
Lade said that he knew it was a fraudster the moment the conversation moved to a purported invitation code the scammer wanted him to send.
“A few minutes ago, I received a WhatsApp call from a self-acclaimed ‘Lagos State House of Assembly, RT Hon Mudashiru Obasa’, inviting me to a scheduled online Youth stakeholders meeting,” Lade shared on X.
“He further said an access code would be sent to me, and I should call it for him to note my availability. I received the code during the conversation and called the wrong code for him. He ended the call by cursing his generation over a failed coup attempt on me.”
There’s no explanation for this type of phone number hacking yet, but FIJ’s XpressVerify report in March has raised very important issues around the apparent breach of the national identification database.
Gbenga Sesan, the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, has revealed that his organisation bought Minister Bosun Tijani’s National Identification Number (NIN) slip for just N100 on Monday.
“NIMC’s statement (published on Saturday) suggests that it is Nigerians who are giving their data to these fake websites, but this is NIMC’s data, and we now have proof. We got the NIN slip of the minister, Dr Bosun Tijani; we got the NIN slip of the number one data regulator in Nigeria, Dr Vincent Olatunji,” Sesan said on Monday.
READ MORE: BVNs, NINs, Other Private Information of Nigerians Available on AnyVerify for Just N100
“We bought them for N100 each to demonstrate that this is not a joke. It basically means that your identity is for sale for N100. The real implication is that anything we can do with a NIN slip, we can get a SIM card with that. Who knows if anyone has the President’s SIM card right now. Or the National Security Adviser? A military general leading warfare in a place where they are dealing with terrorists?
“What if a terrorist bought the general’s NIN slip, got his SIM card and sent a message to the troops and said, ‘Meet me at 0700. 14 degrees north,’ just to ambush them? The implications are serious. It means that anybody can claim to be you. They can get your SIM card and do it.
“It’s not just that there’s a data breach; it’s that there is another data breach. XpressVerify was the one in March, and we did report it.
“Thanks to FIJ, it was revealed. We reported it to the NDPC, and NIMC got a slap on the wrist, and that means that they were willing to look away again.”
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