Under Zambia’s refined Cyber Crimes Act No. 4 of 2025, impersonating others online by using false titles or identities on platforms like Facebook is now a punishable offense.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BmRHcGfMN/?mibextid=oFDknk
All those claiming to be life coaches, engineers, doctors, generals, pastors or holding any other professional or honorary titles must now prove they are qualified to use such titles online.
According to the refined Cyber Crimes Act No. 4 of 2025, the public or anyone else for that matter has the right to sue someone who claims to be a doctor online and demand to see their qualifications.
If someone calls themselves a general on Facebook, you might as well ask when they became commander of the army or any high ranking official of the army, e.g someone calling themselves John General or Commander Catherine when they do not own such a position in the military is a crime and you can sue them in order for them to prove it.
The same goes for people calling themselves engineers when they have never seen the inside of an engineering school.
According to Part 19 of the Cyber Crimes Act No. 4 of 2025, it is an offence to intentionally mislead people online using false identities or deceptive information.
The law in Part II of the Cyber Crimes Act No 4 of 2025 Section 19 (1) states that a person shall not intentionally and without lawful authority, use a computer or computer system to relay or retransmit electronic communications to deceive or mislead users as to the origin of the communication.
A person shall not initiate multiple electronic messages to cause harm or disruption.
They shall also not create deceptive software systems to trick visitors for unauthorised access to commit an offence and falsify header information in an electronic communication to deceive or mislead users.
Those who break this law risk being fined up to K210,000 or be jailed for a minimum of two years and up to seven years or both.
So next time you bump into a Dr Moses on Facebook, you might want to ask which medical school he went to before he starts diagnosing you with a spiritual cold and prescribing ginger and fasting as a cure.
As for the so called life coaches, unless they are certified professionals, they could soon be coaching their way through a courtroom.
Even engineers who have never drawn a single technical diagram or held a wrench outside WhatsApp groups could be in hot cyber soup.
The law is now clear that if you are not it, don’t claim it, especially online.
This move is meant to curb the growing trend of misinformation and identity fraud online, which has seen people being misled by unqualified individuals posing as experts, in short this law is meant to protect citizens from online fraud.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, April 30, 2025
