By Angeline Mgbele, Correspondent Abuja

Safety and security experts are won’t to say eternal vigilance is the prize we have to pay for our collective safety and security against the background of increasing rates of crimes and criminalities globally.

With the above in mind and in the course of its regular online surveillance aimed at protecting telecoms consumers and industry stakeholders, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has discovered a spurious Facebook Account purporting to be that of the Commission and has proactively contacted Facebook Team to take down the fake account.

In a statement, the Director of Public Affairs at the NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde says the fraudulent Facebook account with the name: “Nigerian Communications Commission – NCC – Info Zone” was opened by unidentified individuals, ostensibly to deceive and defraud unsuspecting members of the public, some of whom, as NCC believes, may have inadvertently signed on to the fake Facebook account.

“It is important to emphasize that the official, authentic and verified Facebook account of the Commission is: “NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION” with over 192,193 followers and the Commission strongly advises the general public and telecom consumers to beware of this cloned Facebook account, as the NCC has no affiliation whatsoever with it,” NCC warns .

It adds: “This is a typical case of profile cloning often used to create a fake profile identical to an original one, for the purpose of misleading and defrauding the unsuspecting general public.

Members of the public are advised to disregard the Facebook Page and its contents in their entirety.

The NCC, as a responsible organisation, will continue to take measures towards protecting telecoms consumers and industry stakeholders.”