Penang Deputy CM 1 lodges police report over fake Facebook account

GEORGE TOWN: Penang Deputy Chief Minister 1 Datuk Seri Mohd Rashid Hasnon has lodged a police report after realising an irresponsible party had created a Facebook account using his name and asked his staff to bank in money into two bank accounts for business purposes.

North East police chief ACP Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said Mohd Rashid made the report yesterday after being informed on the matter by his staff at about 9am while attending an executive council meeting in Komtar.

“The suspect disguised himself by creating a Facebook account under the name Hj Rashid Bayan Baru and asked Mohd Rashid’s staff to transfer money, as a result of which one of his (Mohd Rashid) colleagues was deceived and incurred a loss of RM100.

“The victim made the transfer to the suspect’s bank account through online banking and Mohd Rashid lodged a police report for fear his name and image were being used for fraud,” he said here yesterday.

He said investigations were ongoing and police had identified the suspect involved in the incident with efforts to locate the person underway.

Mior Faridalathrash said the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

Meanwhile, Mohd Rashid urged the public not to be fooled by the imposter using the fake Facebook account as two of his colleagues had been deceived.

“Yesterday I received many phone calls from colleagues asking me about the money I had requested from them via Facebook. I was very surprised, because I had never done such a thing, including asking for donations from my colleagues.

“Realising something was amiss, I checked the account and found that the individual had been using my name and nearly all of my pictures to defraud victims comprising my colleagues,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He said the suspect had asked his staff and colleagues to deposit money into two bank accounts and the fake Facebook account was found to have been deleted in the middle of last night. — Bernama