Conmen intensify stealing in ministers’ names

Minister Sarah Opendi

Conmen in Uganda have intensified their thieving efforts by impersonating prominent politicians and individuals using social media to defraud unsuspecting members of the public with promises of job offers.

One of the latest victims is the State Minister for Health Sarah Opendi whom the fraudsters have impersonated using facebook to solicit money from unsuspecting members of the public using juicy job offers.

In Minister Opendi’s case, the fraudsters created a Facebook account in her names and posted fake adverts purporting to offer up to 500 job placements with the Uganda Red Cross.

One member of the public who narrowly survived being fleeced of his hard-earned money called this newspaper to cross the veracity of the advert. The victim, who preferred anonymity, said he tried to apply for the job but he was asked to pay a registration fee of UGX20,000.

“When I tried to send the money to the other end, I instead realised that the recipient name didn’t match that of the minister,” says the source.

When this newspaper contacted the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health Emmanuel Ainebyona, he noted that the alleged job offers are nothing but the work of fraudsters.

Ainebyona warned the public to disregard any such juicy offers that do not go through official channels.

Only recently, the Minister for Works Monica Azuba Ntege suffered a similar problem when conmen impersonated her with similar job offers. The minister had to make radio announcements to try to dispel the spreading falsehoods.

Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga warned the public this week to be on high alert with such job offers. He said the police was trying to investigate the cases that have so far been reported, but said they had not made any arrests yet in connection with impersonation of ministers.

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