The Ministry of Economic Development has held a meeting with the relevant authorities to address the increase in scam calls and illegal monetary transfers.
Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail chaired the meeting, which included senior officials from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), Bank of Maldives (BML), and Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB). The discussions include implementing legal and administrative changes to address the issue.
Maldives Police Service (MPS) has warned that scam calls are on the increase and it was a challenge to find the culprits as some numbers are registered to foreigners who had left the Maldives years ago. The police service also stated that a large number of scam calls come from Maafushi Prison and that jammers will be installed to stop phone usage in the area.
MPS has also decided to restrict the sale of SIM cards due to stop phone scams. As such, unregistered phone numbers will be blocked within 24 hours if they are suspected to have been used by scammers.