Police are investigating a MVR49.9 (US$3.2 million) fraud case involving money transfer organisation ‘Moneygram’.
Police told local media that the case was reported on March 13 was now under investigation.
Police Spokesperson Chief Inspector Hassan Haneef said the case was handed to the police cyber crime department as the fraud was conducted over the internet.
Chairman of Maldives Post Limited (MPL) Ahmed Nizam told newspaper ‘Sun’ that the company came to know about the missing money last week and reported it to police.
He told the paper that it appeared the money was stolen through hacking.
Maldives Post Limited has temporarily ceased offering money transfer through Moneygram “until the police investigation is concluded that the MPL is sure this sort of thing will not happen again.’’
Maldives Post Limited and police have not provided details of the case.
MPL website states that ‘’Moneygram is a person-to-person money transfer virtually to any place around the world. Moneygram is an extensive and proficient network, linked by computers, which will transfer your money around the world with care.’’
According to the Maldives Post website, MPL in association with MoneyGram provides money transfer service to 39,000 locations in 150 countries around the world.
The website also states that ”Moneygram is based in Denver, Colorado USA. It was started in 1988 and since then has emerged to become one of the world leaders in the electronic transfer of money around the world. Moneygram has developed top-end technological solutions for its business, which are highly secure and reliable.”
how secure? bulls**t!
The world's most secure transactions are only as secure as the people who operate them. Therefore in Maldives nothing is secure. Just how do you find a group of honest people to handle other peoples' money... Impossible...
It is definitely an "insider" job. Just check the financial accounts of the all the staff who has access to the system and user passwords.