There were 837,000 users in Mauritius aged 18 and above using social media as at January 2023. Facebook is one of the social media networks which is still commonly viewed as social media locally. The most common type of cybercrime offences reported in 2021 were parcel scams, money mule and sextortion.
One of the local newspapers reported that there were several cases in which users were the victims of a scam. The buyers paid for a camping tent using cardless cash withdrawal.
Cardless cash allows a bank customer to withdraw cash from an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) by using his/her digital wallet instead of a card.
I asked a person who is familiar with Juice, an all-in-one banking solution, to walk me through the service used to send money for an online purchase:
Marketplace is the classified-ad section of Facebook. It is a place where Facebook users can buy, advertise or sell items.
A Family camping tent was advertised on Facebook Marketplace. The price of the item was USD 57/-. A buyer contacted the seller through Facebook to ask about the advertised item. The seller informed the buyer that there is an additional cost of USD 3.50 for home delivery and gave a phone number.
The buyer asked when the payment would be made, i.e. through Juice or at the time the item is delivered.
The buyer contacted the seller using the WhatsApp number to place the order and the location where the item should be delivered. The seller provided a name, surname and a bank account number.
The buyer then made a payment for the sum of USD 61.50 through a Juice account transfer. The name of the seller and the reference number are available to the buyer. That information was removed from the image below.
The buyer forwarded the confirmation of the payment to the seller. The buyer noticed that the name and surname provided by the seller did not match the name and surname which was provided for the transaction. The buyer informed the seller about the discrepancy. The seller reassured the buyer and informed the buyer that she is using another person's bank account. The seller confirmed that she would be able to collect the money.
The item which was purchased was not delivered to the buyer. The buyer tried to contact the seller through WhatsApp. The seller never responded to the buyer.
The buyer would not be entitled to file a fraudulent claims report through Facebook Marketplace as Facebook onsite checkout was not used for the transaction. In addition, Facebook Purchase Protection is not applicable to Mauritius.
The buyer would only be able to invoke the dispute resolution mechanism for Juice if the seller was registered as an agent or merchant with Juice. That does not seem to be the case.
The country code of the seller's phone number is +230. The first digit of the phone number is 5. The seller used a Mauritius mobile phone number. The SIM card for that phone number was assigned by Emtel Ltd. There was a transfer of funds through the Mauritius banking system. The buyer could file a police complaint. It may be possible for the police to track down the seller if it knows the phone number of the seller, the reference for the bank transaction, or the bank account number of the beneficiary (seller). In practice, the police would have to seek a Judge's order to request information for its investigation.
The trick in this case was to gain the confidence of the buyer and convince him/her to use an online bank transfer to send money. The seller would be less confident about the success of the fraudulent scheme if the buyer pays for the item at the time of delivery. It is easy to find fault or blame the buyer. The consequence of that approach is underreporting of fraud. The seller will keep on doing it as he/she does not have to face any adverse consequences.
I would like to thank the person who explained how Juice works. I would also like to thank the person who agreed to provide the screenshots.
1. "Cybercrime Unit Statement to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime", United Nations, April 2021
2. "Ces «serial arnaqueurs» qui exigent le retrait d'espèces sans carte", lexpress.mu, November 2023
3. "MCB Juice", MCB Juice, November 2023
4. "Stanford Asset Holdings Ltd and another v AfrAsia Bank Ltd (Mauritius)", Find Case Law, October 2023