Cybercrime is on the rise as many local businessmen and ordinary citizens who do purchases and other money transactions online have lost large sums which have been intercepted and transferred to other fake accounts other than to the original accounts.
This is after their emails had been hacked and personal information stolen by well-organised criminals from overseas.
Most of these financial interception scams are coming from countries in the Far East as well as South Africa where most Seychellois do business transactions.
This is why the police in collaboration with the Financial Investigation Unit (FUI), the Central Bank of Seychelles and the Bankers Association have come together to warn and educate the public on increasing financial cybercrime activities.
The public at large, especially the business community, are being advised to verify the authenticity of their clients’ details or call their clients to be on the safe side before making any overseas payment transactions.
One has to make sure that payment goes to the right person and the right account. Other related financial scam to be on the lookout for is the credit card skimming scam. People travelling abroad especially to South Africa are being advised to have their credit card swipe in the clear and not use any type of ATM machines. Another new scam is the mobile phone scam where unknown callers make anonymous calls to retrieve information on the SIM cards.
It was through a press conference earlier this week at the police headquarters in Victoria that the Commissioner of Police Reginald Elizabeth, flanked by the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, Christophe Edmond; the director of FIU, Philip Moustache; and Bankers Association representative Norman Weber, that the warning call was made.
Commissioner Elizabeth stated that 18 such cases happened last year and already this year eight have been reported, thus the need to raise the alarm.
“It is very difficult for us to enter another country’s jurisdiction to pursue the criminals and by the time we are in contact with Interpol and other partners on the known report, the cash would have already vanished,” he said.
It has been noted that there could be more such cases as some might have gone unreported.
For his part, Mr Moustache said the FIU had previously alerted the public on cyber-financial crimes, but lately people should also be very careful when using Facebook as there is a loan scam going around where a fake French couple of African descent are offering huge loans. He has advised members of the public not to get into contact with them.
“We’ve had people here who have been in contact with them and most of the administrative fees for the loans they asked is to be sent to West African countries instead to France via Western Union or Instagram where you never stop paying. Through email hacking there are businessmen here who have lost huge sums of R1 million to R1.2 million where they are asked to transfer money in a new account specifically set up just to retrieve the money,” Mr Moustache explained.
He also said his division also managed to stop a R800,000 transfer once and warned individuals to be on their guard against foreigners on Facebook who lure vulnerable and unsuspecting people to fall prey to their fake convincing profiles and later retrieve money as it has happened to someone before.
Bankers Association’s representative Norman Weber explained that even though businessmen liaise with the banks for transactions, it is their responsibility to protect their own interests.
“It is important to know the client you are dealing with. If you get a new instruction for a bank transfer payment through an email, it doesn’t cost a lot just to make a phone call to verify if the information is genuine. Some people get unsolicited mails and those deals being proposed may look too good to be true. Our advice to the public is to make sure that you know the person you are dealing with and if you are not sure, do not entertain those persons or emails,” he advised.
Mr Edmond said the Central Bank of Seychelles has been working closely with the police and the Bankers’ Association to put in place a programme to educate the public on such transactions and furthermore it is working in collaboration with other authorities to set up a strategic financial education programme that will help educate the public on what to watch for when they face such matters.
“Concerning the issue of cybercrime, the Central Bank of Seychelles is looking for a cyber-security consultant to help us with an assessment on our system in place as the Central Bank of Seychelles provides the settlement system to commercial banks and we will put in place safety standards for commercial banks to adopt that will help prevent cyber-attacks,” he added.
It is hoped that the awareness on internet financial cybercrime is taken seriously and that all concerned take their responsibilities to avoid falling easy prey to criminals.
