The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has advised the public to embrace AI-enabled identity verification following the impersonation of the agency’s chief by a fraudster on social media.
The Federal agency says that following the recent events involving the impersonation of Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, its Director General, NOA is urging the public to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled voice for verification and authentication purposes.
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is the theory and development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that historically required human intelligence, such as recognizing speech, making decisions, and identifying patterns” according to Coursera.
Following the detection of this fraudulent activity, NOA issued a statement alerting the public to the increasing prevalence of fraudsters using the Director General’s name to deceive unsuspecting individuals on social media.
NOA states that its operations are not conducted on social media, and that it does not use this platform for official official notification of the directive of the Director General.
“It has come to the notice of the National Orientation Agency, (NOA) of the increasing activities of fraudsters who use the name of our Director General to prey on unsuspecting members of the public, especially on social media, with claims and services not within the core mandate of the Agency,” according to the agency.
To combat these fraudulent acts, NOA advised the use of CLHEEAN, an AI enabled voice and text assistant, as a means of authenticating the source of information.
Additionally, the agency says that its official website (noa.gov.ng) and verified social media platforms (Facebook: National Orientation Agency Nigeria, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube: noa_Nigeria) are the legitimate outlets approved by NOA.
Alao, NOA advises the public to exercise vigilance and caution when approached with unverified offers or announcements regarding the agency’s activities.
As outlined in Decree 100 of 1993, the primary objective of NOA is to ensure that government programmes and policies are effectively communicated and understood by the general public.