Firm Foils Bid to Steal $42K
did not deliver the goods ordered after a bank officer advised them to hold on to the goods until the money had gone in to their account.
Mr Ali revealed that they were contacted on November 29 by a man named Ashneel Naidu, who claimed to work for a New Zealand-based company to supply them with quotations for tyres and truck parts. The final amount came to $42,160 and the next day they sent an ANZ payment receipt that showed that an online transfer had been made to our company’s bank account,” said Mr Ali.
“They asked for immediate deliveries on Saturday because they apparently needed to ship the items to the Solomon Islands. “The whole thing seemed fishy so we consulted a bank officer and he suggested we wait over the weekend until the payment came through on Monday.”
Mr Ali said they had loaded the items, but they stopped the delivery just in time because on the following Monday, the bank revealed that the payment receipt was fake. He added that the payment receipt was sent from an email that used the domain name of an international bank operating here in Fiji.
Another company in Suva, which has chosen to remain anonymous, has said that it was also defrauded of an undisclosed sum.
It had already delivered the goods before it discovered that it was a scam.
The company’s Managing Director said a well-dressed girl came to their shop to deliver a fake cheque and was caught in the company’s CCTV camera.
He said the footage had been handed over to the Police for investigations.
“The syndicate asked for quotations for tyres under the guise of a local company, which happened to be one of our custom- ers,” the man said.
“We had been dealing with that company and knew the owner so without any suspicion we accepted the cheque and since it was during the weekend, we found out on Monday that the cheque was fake.” Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said they are continuing investigations as new leads were identified.
“Investigation takes time, we cannot rush the investigations because we have to follow the whole paper trail that is there and go through the documentation of all the equipment that went missing,” he said.
The syndicate asked for quotations for tyres under the guise of a local company, which happened to be one of our customers. We had been dealing with that company and knew the owner so wwithout any suspicion we accepted the cheque and since it was during the weekend, we found out on Monday that the cheque was fake Company Managing Director wHosE firm wAs DEFrAuDED of undisclosed sum