Over Rs. 01 bn swindled through online scams; CB fails to take action: MP

7 May 2024 01:34 pm Views - 1260

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera

Parliament, May 07 (Daily Mirror)- The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has failed to act swiftly to stop financial scams operating online, allowing fraudsters to swindle about one billion rupees from over 1,000 account holders, Parliamentarian Gamini Waleboda said today.

The MP told Parliament that on April 25 he had revealed in Parliament that a scam was being operated online to transfer money from current and savings accounts to other accounts using mobile apps and that neither the Central Bank nor the Finance Ministry had taken any steps regarding the scam so far.

He said the CBSL had only issued a notice to the public on the scam yesterday.

The MP said money from accounts had been transferred to a local private bank and then some of that money had been converted into crypto currency and taken out of the country.

He said the scammers publish notices for attractive online offers and services leading to mobile device users inadvertently clicking on unknown links and downloading malicious apps. 

The MP said the Central Bank and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) must act upon this as the banks and customers can hardly do anything about this matter.