Fraudsters Now Pose As Journalists To Blackmail Public Officials

There are indications that fraudsters may have found new ways of defrauding unsuspecting members of the public, especially top government officials.

One of these ways is to pose as a journalist investigating government contract scam.

The “journalist” would send an SMS, WhatsApp or email message to their target, usually top government officials or big contractors informing them they have been linked with a contract scam, and demanding to hear their own side of the story within a specific time.

A senior government official (name withheld) who got one of such mails, informed THE WHISTLER that she had never been involved in the award of any contract or influenced one before in his career, and wondered why anyone would send him such a mail.

The mail she received was sent by one Ana-Marie Freehouse who claims to work as a freelance journalist with The Bureau Of Investigative Journalism based in Kings Cross, London.

Freehouse also claims to have local partner reporters in Nigeria who would be ready to meet him “at short notice”.

Freehouse stated in the mail that she was working on an “international story which involves contract awards within certain government departments in Nigeria and one line of inquiry was recently broken to us by a source who suggested companies with links to you or associates may have enjoyed preferred treatment in awards.

“While we do not take all these sort of tips at face value, we’d like to give you or any associates a chance to probably put things into perspective for our story.

“The Bureau aims to be as objective and balanced as possible and so gives all sides the chance to be heard. Can we have an interview with you, say next week?

“We work with local partner reporters we can call who could meet with you even at short notice.”

But when THE WHISTLER called the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to enquire about the said Freehouse, the website was told that no such name existed on organization’s staff list and the name was not known to the organization.

Meirion Jones, Investigations Editor of the organization, responded thus: “Thanks for checking. This is not someone from our staff or even someone I have ever heard of-at least under that name. Can you send her phone number please. The Bureau is not working on any story about (name withheld) or Nigeria.”

A senior director at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who also shared his experience with THE WHISTLER said he received a similar email last month.

The “journalist” claimed to be working with Al-Jazeera. “But when I invited him and told him my lawyer will also be at the meeting, he never showed up again”.

He urged government officials to be wary of such communications and report to the anti-corruption agencies.