Egypt's Parliament warns of fake pages claiming to conduct coronavirus tests

CAIRO - 4 May 2020: The Communications and Information Technology Committee of the Parliament, headed by Ahmed Badawi, warned of fake pages on social media that claim they are medical teams passing by the houses to test the citizens for coronavirus in exchange for LE 500.

The authorities previously monitored 123 fake pages nationwide for companies claiming to sanitize homes.

Badawi stressed that these fake pages are managed by "swindlers" through fake accounts on social media, where they take advantage of the current conditions.He referred to the rapid movement of the committee in coordination with the relevant bodies to demand the arrest of these fraudsters.

He stressed that the law to combat cybercrime applies to these electronic gangs; the law stipulates the punishment of anyone who threatens the country's national security by creating fake pages on social media with aggravated imprisonment and fines.

The Communications Committee calls on all citizens and users of the social media pages not to follow these pages and refer to the official sources of the executive body, which is the Ministry of Health and Population.

Further parliamentarian called for posing the most severe penalties on those who exploit the need of the Egyptians to check on their health amid the pandemic, pointing to the necessity of a decisive implementation of the law of combating information technology crimes known in the media as "electronic crimes."

For his part, parliamentarian Redaal-Beltagy called for launching awareness campaigns to ensure that no medical companies are granted a license to conduct the coronavirus tests.