Investigations into fake social media accounts that claim to represent Police Minister Bheki Cele are under way.

There are more than 160 accounts on Twitter and Facebook which have profile pictures and details of Cele, police ministry spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said.

Cele does not have a social media account - neither a private one not an official one, Peters said.

"Minister Cele has denounced any social media account in his name as fake and has issued a stern warning to those impostors whose motive for impersonating the minister cannot be for anything else but to draw unsuspecting social media users into their criminal activities," Peters said.

Peters said the danger of the accounts was that social media users might believe they would be able to share tip-offs with the "imposters", and the information might "fall into the wrong hands".