28,003
scam cases reported since records began
Maldives Police Service · 2021 → Jan 2024
01 - The Problem
01
Buying and selling is too scattered.
02
Sellers use Viber. Buyers use Facebook. It is a mess.
03
Payments fail and scams happen. Trust is broken.
02 - The Damage
Trust has a
price tag.
Since 2021, Maldivians have been paying it - one screenshot, one transfer, one stranger at a time.
And every number below is only what was reported.
156 million rufiyaa
total defrauded - MVR 57.8M plus US$6.4M
Maldives Police Service · cumulative since 2021
1 million rufiyaa
recovered of everything taken
Less than 1%.
MPS · as of Jan 2024
plus 105 percent
rise in reported cybercrime - 512 → 1,053 cases
Maldives Independent · H1 2025 → H1 2026
Recovered
MVR 1M
Lost
MVR 156M
Each bar = MVR 1 million lost · one bar came back Maldives Police Service · as of Jan 2024
The record, year by year
2023
1,661 cases
MVR 20M lost - roughly US$1.3M.
Maldives Police Service
Jan - Jul 2024
1,302 cases
US$908,000 gone in seven months.
Maldives Police Service
2023
~1,657 cases
~MVR 26M in a single year - tracked by one bank alone.
BML CEO · Edition.mv
April 2025
142 cases
In one month: 64 e-commerce, 38 currency exchange, 19 phone.
Anti-Scam Centre
Last year
MVR 27.5M+
Lost to scams over the year.
Edition.mv · Anti-Scam Centre
Where it happens
The most-reported scam category
wasn't a bank. It was a marketplace.
Facebook Marketplace accounted for the single highest case count of any scam category Bank of Maldives tracked in 2023. By 2024, online shopping fraud made up more than a third of every scam case reported to the bank.
People weren't careless. They were trading in places that were never built to hold anyone to their word.
421 / MVR 3.1M
Facebook Marketplace scam cases and rufiyaa lost in one year - the highest case count of any category tracked.
Bank of Maldives · 202335%
of all scam cases reported to the bank were online shopping fraud.
Bank of Maldives · 2024All figures as reported by the sources named above. MarketLink is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any organisation cited.
04 - Who Pays
Somebody pays.
Twice.
Once by the person who transferred the money. Again by the institutions that now exist to chase it. Below, only what the police, the bank and the press have actually published.
MVR 156 million defrauded.
MVR 1 million came back.
Under 1%
Recovery rate
Money sent is, in practice, money gone.
A - The individual
US$3,000
Lost in a single transfer
A customer contacted a Telegram group offering to sell USD at a rate of 17.80, transferred MVR to an unknown account, and never heard from the seller again.
Source: Bank of Maldives - “Real People, Real Scams”
MVR 1.4M
In one month · US$90,571
Scams using stolen personal data cost Maldivians over MVR 1.4 million in a single month. Police retrieved MVR 530,752 of it.
Source: Maldives Independent - 8 June 2025
No escrow. No buyer protection. No recourse.
The loss falls entirely on the individual.
B - The bank & the system
1,657 cases
MVR 26 million in a single year
Bank of Maldives tracked around 1,657 scam cases, totalling roughly MVR 26 million, across 2023.
Source: BML CEO Karl Stumke - Edition.mv, 21 Dec 2023
~700 cases
In Q2 2024 alone · ~1,400 year to date
BML handled roughly 700 cases in the second quarter of 2024, and about 1,400 in the year to July 2024.
Source: BML Director Moosa Nimal - Parliamentary SOE Committee, via Atoll Times, 24 Jul 2024
3,800+ accounts
Frozen · MVR 10M+ recovered
A dedicated Anti-Scam Centre had to be launched in July 2024. In its first year it froze more than 3,800 bank accounts and recovered over MVR 10 million.
Source: Edition.mv - Anti-Scam Centre, first year (launched July 2024)
Where the cases come from
- Family impersonation 39%
- Online shopping fraud 35%
- Foreign exchange 20%
- Compromised i-banking passwords 10%
Source: Bank of Maldives - 2024 cases, to July
Every frozen account, every reversal, every investigation is cost absorbed by the banking system - and, in the end, by its customers.
The pattern
421 cases MVR 3.1M
Facebook Marketplace scams in a single year - the highest case count Bank of Maldives tracked in 2023.
Source: Bank of Maldives - 2023 case data
35% of all cases
In 2024, online shopping fraud accounted for 35% of every scam case the bank recorded. This is not a fringe category.
Source: Bank of Maldives - 2024 cases, to July
The problem isn’t that Maldivians trade online. It’s that they’re doing it with no protection layer underneath.