Swindlers hack politicians emails and FB accounts to target citizens

The chairman of the National Party Suriname (NPS), Gregory Rusland, expressed shock when Times of Suriname confronted him with an email which was supposedly sent to a member of the editorial staff by him in which he urgently asked for money. The email originated from his email address. As it turns out Rusland’s email has been hacked.

The hackers reportedly used his personal information to approach his relatives and to create the impression that he was the one sending the emails. “I am on the case. It is terrible,” said Rusland who condemned the actions of the hackers. It is suspected that Africans are most likely responsible for hacking his email. The hackers have also targeted Minister Ferdinand Welzijn. Hackers who pretended to be him, tried to do shady business with citizens on social media some time ago. It initially seemed that they were done hacking his email but on Tuesday a member of the editorial staff was confronted with a private message that had been sent by the ‘government official’ via his Facebook account. The hackers had reportedly used an existing account of the minister to start a conversation with the member of the editorial staff. When the member of the editorial staff asked for his phone number, the conversation was ended. The page was reported to Facebook which then deactivated the account. About two weeks ago, criminals also made a fake Facebook account under the name of the minister of Foreign Affairs, Yldiz PollackBeighle. The swindlers used the fake account to con people via Facebook messenger by offering loans. The minister deemed it regrettable that people would go to such lengths to try to swindle honest citizens.