Over 158 people including prison officers implicated in MVR 1.9M scam

Maldives Police Service, on Thursday, revealed a total of 158 people, including prison officers from K. Maafushi, were involved in an MVR 1.9 million that was pulled off in the Maldives recently.

Police disclosed the details of two scam cases presently under investigation by the authority during a press conference held at Iskandar Koshi on Thursday.

Responding to a question by a journalist at the press conference – Rapid Response Head at the Anti-Scam Centre, Inspector of Police Adam Naveedh said both scams saw links to Maafushi Prison. However, he said the Police, at this time, is unable to confirm whether both scams were spearheaded by detainees in the prison.

Prison officers were also involved in cases, said Naveedh, adding the Police searched 16 cells from three units at Maafushi Prison as part of their investigation.

“The Police seized a total of 21 mobile phones, 10 headsets, three USB chargers, one pen drive, nine books containing account and mobile numbers, two sim cards and a memory card during this search,” he detailed.

The scams include one valued at MVR 1.9 million and another valued at MVR 500,000.

Head of Anti-Scam Centre, Inspector of Police Mariyam Rasheedha, who also spoke at the press conference, said a shareholder of a company was contacted by an unknown person on June 18th, claiming to supply goods for projects via Viber and Whatsapp. The caller obtained details of email address from the victim and via their internet banking access, stole MVR 25,000 from the victim’s personal account and MVR 1.9 million from their business account.

The Police, underscoring MVR 548,560 from the stolen money has been recovered, said efforts were underway to return the money to its owner.

Meanwhile, the second scam involved a call to a member of the general public by an unknown number, claiming the victim had won. The victim’s email address was obtained by the contactor and the scam was carried out by switching their phone number to e-sim and compromising and gaining access to their internet banking.

A total of MVR 587,000 was stolen in this case; MVR 25,000 from the victim’s personal account and MVR 526,000 from the account of an organization the victim is a member of.

The Police stressed that both cases involved the participation of many people. Anti-Scam Centre’s Investigation Head, Inspector of Police Shaam Mohamed said over 158 people from 36 islands were involved in cashing out the stolen money in both cases. He added that those implicated in the scam gained various undue financial advantages.

Sham said over 180 police officers were investigating the case at various stages, adding this marks the first time such a high number of officers is involved in the investigation of a scam case.