Man arrested for hacking into Facebook account of policeman

A 20-year-old employed, who allegedly hacked into a Facebook account of a policeman to defraud a man, has been arrested by the police at Keta, in the Volta Region.

Felix Osei, suspect, has since been granted police enquiry bail to assist in investigations.

The Director of the Cybercrime Unit and Child Protection Digital Forensic Laboratory, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Gustav Herbert Yankson, confirmed the story to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra, yesterday.

The court heard that on June 10,2019, complainant, a policeman (name withheld) reported that, on May 21,2019, he (policeman) received a message from one Courage, his mutual friend, on Facebook.

Dr Yankson said the complainant became confused and when he contacted the victim on phone, hesaid that, they had a chat using a Facebook account, which complainant confirmed to be his, but denied ever having such a chat.

ACP Yankson said in the said chat, complainant was alleged to have promised to recruit the victim into the Ghana Police Service upon payment of money.

Prosecution said “according to the complainant, he tried logging onto his Facebook account, but he could not access it. He realised the account has been hacked, and he reported at the Cybercrime Unit for assistance”.

ACP Yankson said the police arrested Osei at Keta, who was one of the recipients of the monies transferred by the victim.

He said police investigations revealed that suspect Osei registered his number with his niece’s name and used same to receive money.

ACP Yankson said further investigations revealed that, he hacked the account and changed the access code, and he managed to win the confidence of his victim to pay GH₵2,400 from the victim.

He said the amount has been retrieved and would be tendered in evidence after investigations.

ACP Yankson said the suspect has been charged with defrauding by false pretense, impersonation, unauthourised access, unauthorised circumvention.

He urged the public to do due diligence before parting with money in any transaction.

BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI