Over MVR 7.4 million scammed last year: Police

Police searches for stolen MVR 20,000

Male’, Maldives— Police has informed that over MVR 7.4 million was stolen by scam within the past one year.

Last year alone, Police received about 226 cases of stealing money through scams and cons from people. Police investigations shows that approximately MVR 3.5 million was taken from these people with such tricks.

So far this year, Police stated that they have received 259 such cases of which MVR 3.9 million was taken from different people.

Noting that the cases have further increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, Police stated that such acts are done by impersonating to be a company, community or a person and contacting people through phone calls most of the time. Along with this, they also make fake documents in the name of other companies to scam people as well.

According to Police research, the con artists are mainly now targeting the rich people of the country.

Police stated that such scam calls mostly come from the jail and that the registered name under these numbers are usually of foreigners. In fact, Police revealed that about 800 scam numbers have been registered under the name of one foreigner.

Advising the citizens to be aware of such scam calls, Police stated that they face several difficulties in investigating these issues and that the money that is lost like that cannot be recovered easily.