1661 scam cases in 2023, MVR 20 mil in losses

Maldives Police Service said on Wednesday that a total of 1,661 scam cases, totaling MVR 20 million in losses, were reported last year.

Both the police and Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM) officials were summoned to the State-Owned Enteprises (SOE) Committee of the parliament for questioning in light of the growing number of scam cases.

While speaking at the committee meeting, Inspector Mariyam Rasheeda, head of the Anti-Scam Center of Police, highlighted that the number of scam cases reported to the authority was higher than those reported to the banks.

Records, according Rasheeda, indicated 1,661 scam cases reported last year, while 1,302 such cases have been reported from January to July this year.

She added that the highest number of scam cases reported involved instances of impersonating popular businesses or brands to deceptively extort money from victims, with 55 such cases reported totaling MVR 13.9 million in losses.

"Based on this, we realized the public may lose even more of their money before this year ends. We need support of all relevant agencies to curb this," Rasheeda said.

She also confirmed more than 500 bank accounts were frozen and 70 web links were blocked so far in 2024.

The authority also submitted 156 scam cases to the Prosecutor General's Office to press charges against the guilty parties, with majority of these cases already in trial process.

Earlier, the Bank of Maldives (BML) claimed its employees were not involved or compromised in scam activities.

At a previous SOE Committee meeting, the bank said 1,400 cases were reported so far this year, out of which 700 were reported during the second quarter.

The bank added that only a few of these cases involved compromised internet banking or mobile banking login issues, while 39 percent of the scam cases involved scammers impersonating close associates or relatives of victims to extort money from them.

Moreover, 35 percent of the cases involved deceptive online marketplace accounts to which customers had paid money to make purchases but never received the items they paid for. BML added that 20 percent of the scams involved fake currency exchanges from Viber or Telegram.