News

Almost 1000 scam cases thus far this year

Police have received 998 cases of scams so far this year, with the losses from the scams amounting to over MVR 23 million, Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed said today. CP Hameed revealed these figures at the launch of the Multi-Agency Workshop on Combating Scam in the Maldives.

The commissioner said that scam cases are causing financial losses to the people. He said the institutions are working at their maximum capacity to prevent scam cases.

At the Home Sector press conference held on November 16, CP Hameed said that five foreigners had purchased over 25,000 SIM cards between them, and the SIM cards were used to commit crimes, acts of terrorism, and scam phone calls. Although these foreigners previously lived in the Maldives, he said they no longer reside in the country.

While most scam calls are believed to originate from prisons, he said 3,033 actions had been taken across the country regarding such scam calls, not limited to areas where prisons are located.

Steps taken to stop the scam call

No. of mobile numbers disconnected - 2,196
No. of blacklisted phone IMEIs - 817
No. of blocked websites - 12
No. of blocked IP addresses - 8

The SIM card sales rules have now been changed such that SIM cards will be in non-activated status when issued to customers. The SIM card will be activated after the full details of the customer are provided to the service provider.