A 65-year-old man was scammed by a woman he met on Facebook only a week ago. This Facebook friend, who claims to reside in France, made him believe that she was going to send him a package, before she arrived in Mauritius in two months. Following his conversation with this woman, an individual who claimed to work for a delivery company had contacted him. He was informed that he would have to pay Rs 28,000 to receive the package. The 60-year-old went to a bank in Flacq to make the bank transfer. It was only after receiving another call from the same number claiming an additional sum of Rs 60,000 that the 60-year-old resident of Quatre Cocos realized that he had been duped.
It is during the day of Thursday, October 7th that this sexagenarian filed a complaint for swindle at the Belle-Mare police station. In his statement he explained that he met a woman living in France on Facebook on September 24 after receiving a friend request from her. His new friend told him that she intended to come to Mauritius for a vacation in two months. Before she arrived, she told her that she wanted to send her a package.
This proposal was well received by the resident of Quatre Cocos who accepted it. On October 1, he was to receive a phone call from an individual who introduced himself as an employee of a delivery company. He was informed that in order to pick up the package he would have to pay a fee of Rs 28,000. Excited to receive his present, the 60-year-old went to one of the bank branches in Flacq to make a bank transfer. The money was transferred to the account of a woman living in the village of Surinam.
The sixty-year-old was to receive another call from the same number asking him to pay another amount of Rs 60,000. He refused the request. And, during the day of Thursday October 7, he received a message from this woman who supposedly lives in France who informed him that she will not be able to travel to Mauritius because she tested positive for Covid-19.
The doubt that he was a victim of a scam was thus confirmed. The police of Belle-Mare was seized of this investigation.
