Guyana’s First Lady, Sandra Granger, is once again pleading with members of the public not to be duped by a group of scam artistes who are using her name and telephone impersonations of her to get families to send money to various mobile telephone numbers.
The problem first surfaced months ago. A Police investigation was launched, but so far, investigators have failed to track down the scammers.
Several persons have reportedly fallen for the telephone scam and have forwarded thousands of dollars to various telephone numbers in phone credit, in the hope of being granted scholarships.
News Source understands that persons would receive a call with a male voice on the phone line asking them to hold for a call from the First Lady.
A female voice would then appear on the phone introducing herself as the First Lady and offering the unsuspecting victims, a scholarship to study abroad, once they played their part by forwarding money to the specific line.
In a brief interview with News Source on Friday, a frustrated First Lady, said she is very concerned about the problem, especially since many poor families and residents of the interior region are being targeted.
There have even been cases of some of the victims turning up for meetings at the First Lady’s office that no one knew about or planned. Others have forked out as much as $90,000 and sent it to the phones of the scammers.
Ms. Granger said while Police investigators are continuing with the probe, she would like to remind the public that there are no scholarship programmes that fall under her office, and therefore persons receiving phone calls with scholarship offers, should avoid any prolonged conversation or handing over any money via mobile top up. They should contact the Police.
She reminded that government scholarships are handled by the the Ministry of Public Service.
A few weeks ago, the Ministry of the Presidency issued a statement about the scam and a police investigation was launched. One of the problems investigators are facing, is that the scammers appear to be changing the mobile numbers often, so by the time investigators start to track one number being used to pull off the scam, the crooks would dump that number and start using a new one.
A series of public service announcements warning persons about the scam, are expected to be released soon.
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