Trickster uses Penang Deputy CM’s name to solicit ‘donations’ on FB

hey were asked to pay RM50 to RM1,000 to two bank accounts.

GEORGE TOWN: An unidentified person has been posing as Penang’s Deputy Chief Minister I Mohd Rashid Hasnon on Facebook.

His motive? He has been soliciting “contributions” from the public, from as low as RM50 to as high as RM1,000, through the fake account.

The trickster, who had opened a Facebook account using the name “Hj Rashid Bayann Baru”, had targeted council workers, councillors, civil servants, a deputy director of a federal agency — using Rashid’s friends’ list.

Rashid’s original Facebook account did not have the extra “n” in the word “Bayan”.

According to one of Rashid’s friends, he had received a friend request from the conman.

When contacted, Rashid, who is Pantai Jerejak assemblyman, said he realised something was amiss when a few friends started calling him to confirm details of his bank account number.

“I said no and I did not ask them to bank in anything. I also told them I rarely send messages on Facebook.

“When I asked for a screenshot of the Facebook account, the victims could not send it to me as the conman often disabled his account,” Rashid told FMT.

Rashid said the person tried to target one of his own assistants.

“He had sent my assistant a message, asking for RM500 to RM1,000. When he said he could not give that much, he said he would accept any amount.

“The conman then sent my assistant a CIMB account number and asked for his confirmation slip as proof of payment.

“Another of my men, who was nearly duped by this person, traced the owner of the account number to a company registered in Selayang, Selangor,” Rashid said.

According to the number of calls he received in the past two days, he suspects at least 15 people have been duped.

Rashid filed a police report this evening.

Northeast district police chief ACP Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said investigations revealed that the conman ordered victims to bank money into two accounts.

Mior said one of Rashid’s friends had lost RM100 to the trickster.

He said a suspect had been identified and police were trying to locate the man. The case is being investigated for cheating under the Penal Code.

Meanwhile, a social media expert told FMT that politicians and other public figures should avoid using regular Facebook friends’ accounts, like what Rashid had done.

“They should open a Pages account, where you don’t add friends but you can like a page. This will avoid the account being duplicated easily.” -FMT