1 April 2022
It has come to the attention of the Bank of Mauritius (Bank) that members of the public are increasingly becoming victims of financial scams.
The most common cases relate to the following:
(i) giving out information to fraudsters after being contacted through social media platforms, phone calls or text messages;
(ii) effecting cash deposits/bank transfers in return for parcels, gifts or other products from abroad;
(iii) sending debit cards abroad in expectation of receiving a loan from acquaintances met through social media platforms;
(iv) sharing debit cards with a third-party, whereby these cards have subsequently been used to withdraw money from the customers’ accounts.
Members of the public are therefore advised to exercise caution against such scams as they run the risk of being scammed or becoming party to illicit transactions. The Bank recommends members of the public to take the following steps to ward off any potential risk of being scammed:
- Do not give out personal and banking information such as bank account details, debit/credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, user names, passwords etc. upon receipt of unsolicited phone calls, instant messages or emails from unknown/untrusted persons requesting for information;
- Do not share sensitive personal information on social networks;
- Do not be misled by an e-mail that looks legitimate or appears to link to a genuine website. The legitimacy of the e-mail must be checked;
- Take note that banks and financial institutions in general do not ask for personal information through e-mails. Banks and other financial institutions use their own domain name to send e-mails and do not use generic email addresses (e.g. money@gmail.com);
- Do not respond to e-mails, text messages or missed calls from unknown sources or from e-mail addresses/numbers that cannot be identified;
- Do not click on or share any link from unsolicited e-mails or instant messages.
A list of financial institutions duly licensed by the Bank is available on its website at the following link:
https://www.bom.mu/financial-stability/supervision/licensees/list-of-lic...
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