37 percent of stolen funds returned via Anti-Scam Center

Since the establishment of the Anti-Scam Center via the police in March, 37 percent of money that were lost to scams have been retrieved within a 10 month period, the center said.

During the press briefing by the Cyber Crime Center at Iskandhar Koshi, Head of the Scam Center Inspector of Police Adam Naveed has stated that Maldives' Anti-Scam Center has produced great results even when compared to other nations.

As per the inspector, the Anti-Scam Center places a high priority on retrieving funds lost to scams and the stoppage of resources used by scammers before others fall victim to them. Naveed said that their work begins immediately after a scam takes place.

Naveed went on to say that since the Anti-Scam Center has been established, their retrieval of 37 percent of the money lost to scams within the last 10 months is a great achievement when compared to Anti-Scam Center's across 12 countries.

"Singapore is the only country that is close to our results. I have recently been to Singapore's Anti-Scam Center meeting, with their statistics stating that USD 1 billion has been stolen via scammers just in Singapore.

As per Naveed, before the Anti-Scam Center was established, scam rates were much higher. Much like other nations, scam rates increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Naveed stated that from 2021 until the inception of the Anti-Scam Center, more than 6,000 people have become victims of scams, with more than MVR 110 million having been lost.

As per Inspector of Police Shaam Mohamed of the Anti-Scam Center, 539 individual cases have seen all of their money returned to them, with partial returns to 143 individual cases.

Naveed said that along with retrieving lost funds, the Anti-Scam Center is working to charge parties accused of scamming by submitting cases to the Prosecutor General's Office.

"Of the cases that have been submitted to us, we have successfully recovered funds from 37 percent of cases. One of the biggest concerns our citizens would have is the question of the remaining 63 percent of cases. Our biggest aim when the new year starts, our biggest priority will be to charge and prosecute 30 percent of the 63 percent of cases that are left," said Naveed.

He also stated that they will work to improve the work the center does from the beginning of next year.