The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has advised the public to be wary of fraudsters using its name to dupe people on social media platforms.
Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Wale Adeniyi, said that the call became necessary in view of the increasing rate of the menace.
Adeniyi said that the service had indeed, begun aggressive campaign on the social media as part of efforts at combating the scammers.
He said that the service had launched Facebook and Twitter accounts to engage the public and stakeholders on the way to check the activities of the fraudsters.
He said that video clips of customs’ operations had been uploaded onto the social media accounts to sensitise the public on the activities of scammers, who often claim to be officers of the service.
He urged people to discountenance facebook advertisements, especially the messages attributed to the service, on auctioning of cars and recruitment exercise by the service, saying that they were scams.
“Some people even use the name ‘Wale Adeniyi or the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi’ to attract patronage from unsuspecting public,” he stated.
Adeniyi said that the customs recognised the desperation among Nigerian as a result of unemployment but warned that the service did not sell cars as it had no mandate to do so.
“The new social media policy will complement existing efforts in the traditional media to combat the scourge of online scammers currently duping innocent and unsuspecting citizens.
“Stakeholders and members of public can access our official facebook page and equally follow us on twitter to get access to relevant and authoritative information.
“They can also get customs news, tariffs, events, scam alerts, and videos,” he said.
Adeniyi, however, added that the adoption of social media platform was part of the reforms in the customs, which were aimed at modernising its method of communication with the stakeholders. NAN
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