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A 19-year-old junior high school drop-out resident at Agbozume in the Volta Region, was last Saturday arrested by the cybercrime division of the Criminal and Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for impersonating COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, Director General, Operations.

The young lad, Michael Asare, impersonated the Director General of Operations on Facebook and used the avenue to defraud unsuspecting victims who desired to get enlisted into the service.

Briefing The Finder about the arrest, Dr Herbert Gustav Yankson, Director of Cyber Crime at the CID Headquarters, stated that around December 2015, accused went to a cyber café in Agbozume, researched on COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno and downloaded photographs of him in uniform.

According to him, after Michael downloaded the pictures, he proceeded to create a fake account on Facebook with the name ‘Christian Tetteh Yohuno’, and uploaded two of the photographs he had downloaded as the profile and cover pictures.

After doing this, he received several friend requests, which he confirmed as friends and started communicating with some of them via the same platform, with the assurance that he could assist them get enlisted into the Ghana Police Service. 

Michael succeeded in defrauding four victims to the tune of about GH₵2,000. 

Based upon police intelligence, Mr Asare was picked up in a cyber café in Agbozume.

During interrogation and in his statement, accused admitted the offence and further stated that he has only made about GH₵2,000 from the scam. 

Further investigations disclosed that COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno does not have a Facebook account. 

Efforts are underway to identify other victims suspected to have been defrauded by the accused person. Investigation continues.

Mr Yankson seized the opportunity to advice the general public to be wary of such miscreants hiding behind the anonymity social media provides to perpetuate crime.

“To those out there impersonating and ripping people off, we will get you and deal with you according to the dictates of the law,” he warned.