12 May 2020 12:38 am
The Defence Ministry urged the public to be aware of an ongoing scam using mobile-based digital e-wallet cash transfer system and ransom by threatening individuals.
“It has been revealed that an organised group is operating a mobile-based cash transfer scam to take ransom by urging them to pay money to take their names out from some ongoing criminal investigation,” the ministry said.
This was brought to the attention of Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne by the police at a meeting held recently at the ministry with top defence officials.
According to the police, the fraudsters had called some individuals, threatening and demanding them to pay Rs.25,000-50,000 using mobile cash transferring systems.
“We are investigating such incidents which tantamount to ransom using mobile cash transferring systems, but people have to be more mindful about these scams,” the Defence Secretary said.
He said some individuals had been urged to pay Rs.25,000 to fraudsters using mobile digital cash transfer systems to get their names cleared out from the ongoing inquiry on the Easter Sunday attacks.
Furthermore, Maj. Gen. Gunaratne instructed the police to investigate such scams operating from prison cells to get ransom from family members of suspects in prison by impersonating as police officers and making them pay hefty amounts using the same mobile cash transferring systems.
The Defence Ministry requests the public to complain to the nearest police station or contact 119 if they had been approached by such fraudsters.