By Mohamed Abdi - Reporter
Djibouti (Dawan) — Djibouti’s National Police have begun registering people who lost money to online criminal networks that fraudulently used the name and logo of WAAFI.
The registration exercise is intended to establish the number of victims, determine the amount of money lost and collect available evidence to strengthen the investigation and identify those behind the fraud.
Police investigators have been deployed to different registration centres to receive victims, record their personal information and document how each incident occurred.
People filing complaints are being asked to provide their names, copies of their identity cards, the telephone numbers used to contact them, the Facebook pages or WhatsApp accounts involved in the fraud, and proof of the payments they made.
Authorities said the registration process is important in establishing an official number of people defrauded under the WAAFI name and calculating the total financial losses suffered.
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According to the police, the networks accused of professionally targeting sections of the public created fake Facebook pages and WhatsApp accounts while pretending to be representatives or employees of WAAFI.
The networks reportedly told victims that they could obtain loans, jobs, grants or other services, but required them to first pay money described as registration fees, file-opening charges or service-verification costs.
After receiving the payments, the unidentified networks reportedly cut off communication, blocked the victims or demanded additional money.
Police clarified that the WAAFI name had been used illegally and that the suspected networks had no official connection with the WAAFI service.
The registration of victims forms part of the Djiboutian government’s efforts to combat online fraud and protect members of the public who use digital financial services.