Minister Josephine Teo warns public about a fake Facebook account impersonating her
On 19 Jan, Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo warned the public about a fake Facebook account impersonating her.
She shared about this across her official social media platforms.
Her post stated that the account named ‘Josephine Teo Li Min’ invited followers to engage in conversations.
Mrs Teo confirmed that it was not her account. “I do not send such invitations through a personal account to members of the public,” she wrote.
She also urged people to report such attempts of identity theft to Meta and block the profile immediately.
“Together we can help keep our online spaces safer,” she said, ending the post.
Fake account urged public to message her directly
In Ms Teo’s post, she posted a photo of a comment left by the fake profile ‘Josephine Teo Li Min’ under another comment supposedly from a member of the public.
“I’ve seen quite a handful of your likes and comments on my post and decided to go out of my way to appreciate your comments,” the fake profile’s comment said.
“If you ever want to talk you can kindly message me direct!!”
Notably, the fake profile did not have a photo of the minister and instead had an image of a white tick in a blue circle as a profile photo.
Identity theft on the rise
This is the latest in a string of fake online profiles that have been impersonating Singapore leaders.
According to Channel News Asia, a study showed that Singapore registered the highest year-on-year rise in identity fraud among countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2024.
In June 2024, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong was also targeted in a deepfake online advertisement video endorsing investment scams and took to Facebook to warn the public about it.
In the first 10 months of 2024, at least S$120 million was lost to scams via online impersonations.
Also read: 1,100 impersonation scams reported in 1st 10 months of 2024, at least S$120M lost
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Featured image adapted from Josephine Teo on Facebook and Instagram.
