Last week , the Bank of Mauritius has issued a press release informing the public to be cautioned against an entity by the name of “ROYAL INVESTMENT CONSORTIUM”, purporting to be a company providing clients with private and confidential service in the field of business like International Private Banking, Offshore Banking, International Wealth Management and Formation of Offshore companies and Opening of private and corporate bank accounts in various jurisdictions including Mauritius.
Members of the public are advised that the said “ROYAL INVESTMENT CONSORTIUM” is neither licensed nor regulated by the Bank of Mauritius to operate as a bank in Mauritius. The Bank of Mauritius warns members of the public to be careful when concluding transactions or exchanging correspondences (in electronic form or otherwise) with “ROYAL INVESTMENT CONSORTIUM”.
A list of financial institutions duly licensed or authorised by the Bank of Mauritius is available on BOM website at https://www.bom.mu/financial-stability/supervision/licensees/list-of-licensees.
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
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. [email protected]);
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.
Members of the public are further reminded that, except as otherwise provided for in the Banking Act 2004, no person, other than a bank, shall use the word “bank” or any of its derivatives in any language in the description or title under which that person is carrying on business in Mauritius, or make any such representation in any billhead, letter, paper, notice, advertisement or in any other manner whatsoever.
