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Members of Parliament have called for immediate action by the appropriate security agencies to deal with those who engage in internet fraud in the country.

According to the MPs, the use of fake Facebook and social media accounts in the names of public officers, especially Members of Parliament and other prominent people, is "very worrying".

The MPs made the comment in their contribution to a statement in Parliament on Cyber Crime by the MP for South Tongu Hon Kobena Mensah Woyome.

Hon Woyome said whilst the fraudsters are using various methods including the use of mobile money transfer to dupe many people, an investigation into such reported crimes is very slow.

Commenting on the issue, the MP for North Tongu Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said intensive public education on Cyber Crime must be carried out to save people who have not fallen victim to the fraudsters.

Contributing to the statement, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament and MP for Nsawam / Adoagyiri Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh called for a review of the Criminal Code to deal with those who engage in internet fraud.

Internet fraud is a type of fraud or deception which makes use of the Internet and could involve hiding of information or providing incorrect information for the purpose of tricking victims out of money, property, and inheritance.

Internet fraud is not considered a single, distinctive crime but covers a range of illegal and illicit actions that are committed in cyberspace.

It is, however, differentiated from theft since, in this case, the victim voluntarily and knowingly provides the information, money or property to the perpetrator. It is also distinguished by the way it involves temporally and spatially separated offenders.

According to the FBI's 2017 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received about 300,000 complaints.

Victims lost over $1.4 billion in online fraud in 2017. According to a study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and McAfee, cybercrime costs the global economy as much as $600 billion, which translates into 0.8% of total global GDP.[5] Online fraud appears in many forms.

It ranges from email spam to online scams. Internet fraud can occur even if partly based on the use of Internet services and is mostly or completely based on the use of the Internet.