Ministry of Home Affairs Addresses Surge in Online Scamming

The Ministry of Home Affairs is looking for solutions to combat the recent surge in online scamming. Over the past few months, a growing number of Belizeans have reported that they purchased items online that never arrived and then got blocked by the seller. A more recent scam saw a woman obtaining over three thousand dollars’ worth of food from Celebrity Restaurant, using an online payment scam with fake receipts. Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa says he has been meeting with various stakeholders about the issue. Speaking at the launch of the regional meeting of police commissioners, Musa said he hopes to obtain valuable insight from Caribbean counterparts who have effectively dealt with the issue of online scamming. 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Cybersecurity, as you know, over the last five years to a decade has been on the front burner for our ministry and across the region. As you know, Jamaica was facing an incredible issue with scammers in Jamaica, and now we have seen it come to our shores on a much smaller scale but at the same time extremely important. And so we have been monitoring this along with the Chamber of Commerce. They have brought it to our attention from last year. A number of call centers have raised the issue and so moving forward it is our intention to meet with them to see what types of legislation we can put in place. I’m happy that in some situations we are able to charge individuals for the fraud that they have committed but moving forward tightening the legislation around that is extremely important.”

Reporter: Will the presence of the regional police commissioners be able to bolster you guys efforts along those lines? 
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Absolutely like I said that is a cross region issue that’s one of the top issues, cyber security,  and so it is expected that will be addressed.”

There are currently several pieces of legislation that address cybersecurity matters. These include the Cyber Crime Act 2020, the Electronic Transactions, and the Electronic Evidence Act.