Police report lodged about fake Facebook account, confirms Halimah Yacob
Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob has alerted Facebook to take down a fake account bearing her name and photo.PHOTO: BERITA HARIAN
Published Dec 20, 2015, 8:52 pm SGT
Jermyn Chow
Defence Correspondent
SINGAPORE - A police report has been made about about a fake Facebook account using Speaker of Parliament, Halimah Yacob's name.
Madam Halimah said that she has alerted Facebook to take down the account.
The fake account, which bears her name and her photo, surfaced last Wednesday (Dec 16), she said.
The scammer said Madam Halimah was in trouble and needed money, and asked for her contacts to transfer money to her.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday (Dec 20), Madam Halimah said she was alerted to the scam by her husband's friend.
"That's of great concern to me because people may be thinking that I am raising those funds, that's why I have decided to make it public, to tell everyone that I only have two Facebook accounts, the others are not real," said the MP at Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
She said that she hopes no one has been duped and that police will look into the matter.
"(Its) not just me. If others are affected, scamming, using false accounts, it can be serious, (these are) downsides of technology that we have to be careful of."
Madam Halimah is the second MP reported to have fallen prey to such a scam.
Last December, a fake Facebook account bearing MP (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) Zainal Sapari's name was set up to ask for money.
With the widespread use of the Internet and social media, Madam Halimah said that she is worried that such fake profile pages would become trap for people who do not know better.
Meanwhile, the Madam Halimah who was speaking on the sidelines of a bursary distribution event at Fuchun Community Club, said that she was looking forward to Parliament sitting again next month(jan).
After the General Election in Singapore and Singapore undergoing an economic slowdown, Madam Halimah said she expects a lively debate.
"New MPs too, a lot are raring to go in terms of raising issues and making maiden speeches, I am sure many are preparing to make those...Parliament is a very important institution where people's voices are heard through their MPs, so it is important and I look forward to presiding (over) those debates," she said.
