Bank of Maldives (BML) has revealed that it received 1,360 reports of USD2.2 million being lost through scams in 2022.
BML stated that the first cases of scams were reported in 2014, during which fraudsters stole money through payments to prepaid numbers and after obtaining information on bank account cards. However, criminals have since drastically changed their scamming methods.
Speaking to PSM News, Public Relations Officer at BML Mohamed Saeed said criminals are changing their methods to fit the current trends. As such, he said that the most common methods of fraud last year involved using links to obtain personal information and calling customers and claiming to represent trusted agencies.
Additionally, Saeed noted the increase in reports of scams through online business transactions and said BML received over 250 reports involving e-commerce web pages last year, adding that such cases were also reported recently. He said the cases involved customers using the web pages to make a transaction and not receiving the product or their money back, as the web pages are removed soon after the transaction. He also said BML received 300 reports of customers losing money after using dollar exchanging schemes advertised on mobile applications such as Telegram and Viber.
BML has been making efforts to increase public awareness on scams and has urged customers not to disclose their personal information or Internet Banking details. BML stated that it does not ask for personal information and does not provide links in its messages to customers.