Police warn of social media scams

An organised scam was conducted by a group of racketeers’ through social media to collect money, the police warned the general public today.

The police said they had received information about the gang of racketeers using social media to deceive people by using social networks to build trust and confidence.

Accordingly, they deceived people with the aim of collecting money by claiming that they have won lotteries in many countries, donating material and financial aid from NGOs and that the value of the goods would be shipped to Customs in their name.

The racketeers had also informed the victims to deposit money to a bank account to receive or to collect the goods.

The police said an incident had taken place on October 5 in which such a racketeer had defrauded Rs. 270,000 from an individual in Nittambuwa to release goods from Customs after maintaining a relationship through Facebook.

Therefore, the police informed the public not to deposit money to receive money or gifts without consulting a responsible institution. (Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)