Scam complaints valued at $3.6m
A TOTAL of 1862 complaints valued at $3.6 million were received by the Government’s anti-scam task Multi-Interagency Task Force on the now infamous Ebay shop online scam since its set-up in September last year.
This was confirmed to The Fiji Times by the Ministry of Trade Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications, which had spearheaded the establishment of the task force after thousands of Fijians fell victim to the scam.
“The Anti-Scam Taskforce had received a total of 1,862 complaints from the three agencies — the Fiji Police Force, the Fijian Competition & Consumer Commission (FCCC) and the Consumer Council of Fiji (CCoF) — valued at $3.6 million,” the ministry stated in response to questions sent by this newspaper.
“However, our agencies have seen a gradual decline in complaints received over the past few months.”
In a previous interview with The Fiji Times, CCoF chief executive officer Seema Shandil said a majority of the complaints they received ere not only from Fijians working in the informal sector but from the civil service as well, including doctors and nurses.
“The ministry is aware that the complaints are received from people working across all segments of our society including the informal sector, civil servants and private sector.
“We note that the Ministry of Civil Service had carried out a mandatory survey to obtain views and data on the number of victims in the civil services.
“We are of the view that information and data are being interpreted for further discussion and deliberation,” the Ministry of Trade stated.
It was also found that mobile wallets were the main tools by which the scammers received transferred funds.
“These digital tools are meant to modernise and pave the way to develop the digital economy in Fiji.
“However, it is also being used by fraudsters.” Overall, scams in general increased in 2023 compared to the previous years,” the ministry added.
The Inter-Agency Taskforce is represented by officers from the Ministry of Trade Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications, Ministry of Local Government, Reserve Bank of Fiji, Office of the Solicitor–General, Fiji Police Force, CCoF, FCCC, Online Safety Commission and co-opted members Vodafone and Digicel Fiji.