Morocco: Mother-daughter duo arrested over fraud scheme
A mother and daughter were apprehended at the Mohammed VI International Airport, on August 17th, in connection to a 1.8-million-dirham fraud case.
According to Moroccan government friendly Hespress, Moroccan National Security officers reportedly arrested the duo as soon as they landed at the airport, flying in from a South Asian country. The grounds of the arrest being their involvement in a criminal network carrying out online scamming.
The criminal network in question seems to be a family business, as the mother’s 2 sons were also allegedly incarcerated after national arrest warrants were issued by police in Meknes.
The scam supposedly used social media to find and defraud victims, offering fabricated investment opportunities in a faux business. The total amount the family of scammers managed to conjure from the scheme is said to surpass $190,000.
The mother and daughter have since been put into police custody, awaiting a judicial investigation into the case. However, authorities are still on the lookout for two remaining suspects.
Moroccan authorities are no strangers to dealing with online crime, with anything from scams to cyberattacks being common occurrence in the Kingdom.
Maghrebi reported, on July 19th, about a string of cyberattacks that targeted government ministers. The attacks revealed transactions worth hundreds of millions of dirhams, showing third parties buying and selling properties on behalf of ministers.
Fraud has also plagued Morocco’s educational sector, Morocco’s Minister of Higher Education, Azeddine El Midaoui, recently spoke out in parliament about his shame toward a scandal which saw the sale of fake university diplomas.
El Midaoui himself took responsibility for the failure but also highlighted that the Moroccan education system’s poor academic supervision, oversubscription, and outdated institutional structures were also at fault.
With fraud and cybercrimes becoming more common in Morocco, they also seem to be evolving, not only affecting the people but also the institutions.
Hespress, Maghrebi.org
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