Poster for online scam awareness. | Photo: Techlicious.

The National Bureau of Statistics has appealed to the public to be vigilant of social media scammers after a fake information linked with the institution advertised positions of alleged census staff.

Early this week, a statement circulated on social media sites purported that the World Bank was sponsoring recruitment of 12,600 census officials.

The letter alleged that said the Bureau of Statistics is employing staffs to help undertake the 2022 Population and housing Census across all the States of South Sudan.

However, Jacob Biar Deng, the Senior Information Officer at the Bureau of Statistics dismisses the sponsored recruitment as fake news.

“This one is fake, and it is not bureau who did it. Some group somewhere sat and cook to make that advertisement,” he told Eye Radio.

Biar called on the public to ignore the fake advertisement, saying no population and housing census can be undertaken without an order from the government.

“Even though we are going to run the census, we will reassure to the orders from the presidency first given the green light that NBS we have to conduct the census, so you prepare and do the census.”

“And then if there the government will call the World Bank to do it on our behalf. Because we are a government institution and we have a mandate.”

He added that the National Bureau of Statistics is mandated to carry out the population census recruitment as a government institution, and not the World Bank.

According to technology experts and online safety campaign groups in the country, the growth of global technological advancements enhances the potential for threats to many internet users.

“For example, various South Sudanese online users with no or little social media, cyber, telecom and safety knowledge or skills have easily become victims of online threats,” noted #DefyHateNow, a media organization debunking hate speech and fake news.

Last year, #defyhatenow said it initiated the South Sudan Safety Comm project after many online users expressed pitiful stories related to online threats.

The malicious vices included hacking, cyber-bullying, impersonations of accounts, fake jobs and grants, fake scholarships, as well as health scams, among others. read more on  http://https://defyhatenow.org/online-scam-a-tragedy-that-has-left-many-s-sudanese-traumatized/.