From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN on Wednesday alerted Nigerians to fake social media handles created by fraudsters to deceive the public.
This is coming barely three days after the digital currency was formally launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Osita Nwanisobi Director, Corporate Communications, in a statement said: “The attention of the CBN has been drawn to criminal and illegal activities of some individuals and a fraudulent twitter handle, @enaira_cbdc purported to belong to the Bank.
“The impostor handle and fraudulent persons have been posting messages related to the eNaira with the intent of wooing unsuspecting Nigerians with claims that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), among other falsities, is disbursing the sum of N50 billion eNaira currency.
“These impostors are bent on defrauding innocent and unsuspecting members of the public through the links attached to their messages for application to obtain eNaira wallets and become beneficiaries of the said N50 billion eNaira currency.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Central of Nigeria (CBN) is not the owner of that twitter handle (@enaira_cbdc) and indeed suspended its presence on Twitter following the Federal Government’s Ban. In effect, the Bank is not disbursing eNaira currency to citizens.
“To this end, members of the public are hereby warned to be wary of fraudsters who have resolved to take advantage of unsuspecting Nigerians.
Members of the public should always endeavor to seek clarifications on information about the eNaira either by visiting the eNaira website”, he explained.
Nwanisobi further advised the public to report any suspicious activity by anyone or group its help desk and relevant law enforcement agencies.