The Director of Financial Intelligence Unit Razim Buksh.

The Financial Intelligence Unit is currently investigating a case that involves 10 middle aged women who were believed to be involved in an online romance with the same person who they had sent money to.

This was highlighted by the Director of Financial Intelligence Unit Razim Buksh during a panel discussion at the World Consumer Rights Day when concerns were raised on how do they deal with online fraudulent issues.

Buksh says each one of these 10 women were told that there would be monetary benefits by making them send money to the same individual in Thailand ranging from $250 to $2,000.

He says the Financial Intelligence Unit conducted their profiling and investigations and found out that the women were contacted through facebook and began to communicate with the suspect.

Buksh says the suspect pretends to be a middled aged person with good employment and managed to convince the women that he will be sending money.

Meanwhile Buksh says the Financial Intelligence Unit is also investigating a business email intercept scam where several businesses and companies in Fiji have lost a substantial amount of money since 2014.

He says from 2014 till last year, these businesses have lost $1.4m to cyber suspects who pretend to be suppliers of goods abroad.                 

Buksh says this should be a message to members of the public not to share information to strangers that they meet online.