According to a bank statement posted on social media by the husband of the victim, MVR 200,000 was collected by making the victim deposit different amounts of money to seven different accounts.
Man claiming to be Housing Development Corporation (HDC) had scammed an individual to send MVR 200,000 from their bank account to seven different bank accounts.
The victim is now known to be a woman from Gaafu Alif Atoll Villin'gili.
The money was collected by fraudulently claiming the Villingili resident had received a flat.
Police said this crime was reported to them on Wednesday, that MVR 200,000 had been collected via fraudulent means that evening. They said they had not arrested anyone in connection to this case.
They have not released additional details regarding the case either.
According to a bank statement posted on social media by the husband of the victim, MVR 200,000 was collected by making the victim deposit different amounts of money to seven different accounts.
This includes bank accounts of four women and three men.
Large amounts of money was sent to these accounts after obtaining their emails and passwords.
The victim's husband told Mihaaru news that this occurred because his wife had erroneously provided her password to an email she received. He claims that they know who collected the money from her account, and they are aware that some people from their island is included amongst the perpetrators. He said it was these people that collected the money from the ATMs.
“Around two, three, or four people from the island are involved in this. [Money] was deposited into certain accounts. Then, the money was withdrawn from the accounts by these people,” he alleged.
While the ruse used to collect money was to claim the caller was from HDC informing the victim she had received a flat from their housing schemes, the couple had not applied for any such programs run by the government.
- MVR 50,000 deposited in the account of a person named Fathimath Enash
-MVR 50,000 deposited for Aishath Hikuma Ibrahim's account
- MVR 20,000 deposited in the account of Mariam Sibana
- MVR 25,000 deposited to a woman named Munira Mohamed’s account
- MVR 25,000 deposited to Imran Mohamed’s account
- MVR 25,000 deposited to Shiham Ibrahim’s account
- MVR 5,000 deposited to Hassan Firshan’s account
Though it is known directly which accounts the money was deposited to from the bank account, no arrests have been made so far in the case, police said.
According to the man, the probe may have been delayed due to non-availability of documents from the bank due to the arrival of the weekend.
Cases of extortion and fraud have increased in the country.
Between late last year and last month, over MVR 27 million was lost from various people in scam cases, police said. However, only one million rufiyaa was recovered by the police.