Home Affairs ministry sends out scam alerts |17 March 2017

In the wake of a rise in scams and money swindling in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs is warning the public to stop giving money to certain individuals using names of prisoners incarcerated at the Montagne Posée prison facility.

The warning comes after people falling prey to the scam have been swindled of large sums of money. The scam is run through phone calls by scammers outside in collaboration with some prisoners, to individuals who have families in the prison or are connected to certain court cases where they are assured on false pretext that their beloved ones who are being ill treated in prison will be well taken care of or their court cases will be shelved.

The public is being strongly advised not to entertain any of those phone calls asking for money and to report such matters to the police.

The warning was voiced out yesterday afternoon in a press conference at the Ministry of Home Affairs offices at Independence House by Chief Superintendent of prisons Vic Tirant in the presence of the Head of Detective Services of the CID department in the Seychelles Police Force, Superintendent Francois Freminot.

Chief Superintendent Tirant said that anything that happens in prison concerning prisoners, one has to get information from the prison authority but not to rely on anonymous phone calls.

According to Mr Tirant, the scam has been going on for some time and that it is not new to Seychelles as it happens in other countries.

According to Mr Tirant, the cash pay-out is picked up in different locations around Victoria normally by individuals on motorcycles.

“During the four months I’ve been in charge of the prison, 700 phones have been confiscated. Although with some difficulty, we are trying very hard to prevent prohibited materials such as drugs and phones from entering the prison so as to prevent such incidents. We have two phone jammers to prevent calls in prison but we cannot use the heavy duty one as it interferes with the Cable and Wireless system at Bon Espoir and the general public cannot make calls. We have no option but to use the weaker one which prisoners are still able to capture signals at designated locations known to them which is not easy to verify,” said Mr Tirant who also urged the public to respect the prison’s regulations and not to help in getting prohibited materials into prison which is an offence.

Superintendent Freminot said that the police had been issuing out warnings to the public on the corrupt practice since early last year. He noted that the thieves are very well informed on their victims and by impersonating and pretending to be prison officers, police officers or court workers or any other person, they con their victims who easily fall into their trap.

“As example, they would call somebody who they know have bought something which may have been stolen and which the person do not know about and would tell them that an investigation is going on and their name have cropped up in relation to the inquest and that they have to pay up to avoid going to court and the evidence will be destroyed. What we have noticed for some time now is the calls come in with a mild threat as a desperate effort to get the money quickly,” he explained, stating that no one has reported to have been hurt in the illegal transaction.

Superintendent Freminot said that most of the time the victims are aware of a criminal act that the criminals themselves know about and that is why some of them become fearful and pay up.

He said the police deplore this illegal act and said that they are attending to the situation and a few cases of those caught doing this illegal activity are at the Attorney General’s office waiting to be brought to court.

Superintendent Freminot reminded that apart from the caller, anybody involved in this illegal activity is also responsible for the offence which carries a three-year sentence.

The rise in criminal scam activities has prompted the Speaker and both the leader of the opposition and leader of government business in the National Assembly, Wavel Ramkalawan and Charles De Commarmond respectively, to raise the issue in this week’s sitting of the Assembly warning people to be on guard against such frauds.