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Public Notice on Telephone Scam and Phishing Alert

05 December 2019

It has come to the notice of the Bank of Mauritius that members of the public have been receiving phone calls inviting them to disclose their bank account details to allow sums of money to be credited to their accounts.  

Members of the public are hereby informed that these phone calls may be phone scams, designed to trick individuals into giving out their personal and banking information for the purpose of laundering money through their accounts or stealing money therefrom. Such scams may also be made via instant messaging and email.

Members of the public are therefore cautioned against such unsolicited phone calls, instant messaging or emails and are advised not to give out personal and banking information such as details of their bank accounts, card numbers, personal identification numbers, user names, passwords, etc. to unknown persons as they run the risk of being scammed or becoming a party to illicit transactions.

Members of the public are advised to take the following steps to ward off any potential risk of being scammed:

  • Do not give out personal, credit card or account details upon receipt of unsolicited phone calls, instant messages or emails requesting for personal and banking information
  • Do not share sensitive personal information on social networks
  • Do not give personal or bank account details to unknown or untrusted people
  • Do not be fooled by an email that looks legitimate or appears to link to a genuine website. The legitimacy of the email must be checked before replying to it
  • Take note that banks and financial institutions in general do not ask for personal information through emails. Banks and financial institutions use their own domain name (e.g. something@bom.mu) to send emails and do not use generic email addresses (e.g.  money@freemail.com)
  • Do not respond to text messages or missed calls from numbers that cannot be identified
  • Do not reply to emails received from unknown sources
  • Do not click on any link on unsolicited emails.

A list of the different types of financial frauds is available on the Bank’s website, https://www.bom.mu under the menu “Financial education”.  Members of the public may call on 202-3800 or send an email on communications@bom.mu to report any potential scam or financial fraud.