WESTERN BUREAU:
Some days, the name is Abelo Forex; on other days, Kabelo Forex Goat Investments. The only constant is the image depicting Jamaican businessman Aubyn Henry, whose physical identity has been stolen by South African scammers.
A month ago, Henry was alerted to his images being used for forex trading in South Africa, only to find out that the tricksters had been capitalising on his popularity on social media for a year, duplicating every post he made.
The 24-year-old’s image was trending as recently as two weeks ago on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with Kabelo Forex now claiming a following of more than 18,000.
“They have a following of some 8,000 on Facebook and roughly 10,000 on Instagram with the handle profits_daily_forex_institude,” Henry told The Sunday Gleaner.
They have used his image to create at least three accounts, including on WhatsApp.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Henry is among a growing group of Jamaicans beset by cybercrime on the various social media platforms, which has increased since the onset of COVID-19.
With no experience in foreign exchange or securities trading, Henry, through his lawyer, Teri-Ann Lawson of Juris Partners, has written Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, WhatsApp’s Jan Koum, YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki and South African High Commissioner to Jamaica L.E. Yengini about the theft of his identity.
He has…
