16 romance scams reported this year

The police received reports regarding 16 cases of romance scams this year, according to statistics shared on Thursday by the Anti-Scam Center.

The numbers were shared at a press briefing in the morning.

Speaking to reporters, Inspector of Police Shaam Mohamed, the Head of Scam Investigation at the Anti-Scam Center, told reporters that 1,663 cases of scams were reported over the last ten months.

This includes 16 cases of romance scams, a growing crime that takes both an emotional and financial toll on victims.

The police did not provide any specifics regarding the cases.

According to Shaam, the 1663 scam cases resulted in MVR 22.7 million in financial losses, of which only MVR 8.5 million or 37 percent has been recovered.

But Shaam noted that the recovery rate is significantly higher than the 2 percent it had been before the Anti-Scam Center was set up.

While the cases involved 12 different types of scams, the most frequent were e-commerce scams – primarily those run through Facebook Marketplace, foreign exchange scams and impersonations.

Scam topology:

• E-commerce: 763 cases
• Foreign currency exchange: 340 cases
• Impersonation: 242 cases
• Phone calls: 95 cases
• Investment scams: 55 cases
• Links: 37 cases
• Romance scams: 16 cases
• Job offer scams: 6 cases
• Identity scams: 4 cases
• Compromised business email: 1 case

Sham said the Anti-Scam Center responded to 4,421 different phone calls since it was operationalized.

An amendment made to the Criminal Procedure Code on March 17 now allows the police to rapid freeze bank accounts suspected of involvement in scams.

According to Sham, 2,946 different bank accounts were frozen for 48 hours in scam cases over the last ten months. The freeze of 754 of these accounts were also extended via court.

Sham said that the police resolved 662 scam cases reported over the last ten months and prosecuted six cases.

The police urge victims to report scams immediately in order to improve chances for recovery of money.