A 21-year-old nursing student and a market vendor in Labasa have been separately charged with a count of obtaining financial advantage and would both appear in court later today.
For the nursing student, police said that on May 18th, this year, the accused obtained $150 from the victim through the Mobile Money Transfer platform.
“Investigation revealed that the victim was at home going through his social media account, when he came across a post for the sale of a phone valued at $800.00, that was advertise under a fake account name,” police said.
“The victim was interested and sent a message to the account holder where they started conversing about the phone. The accused sent the picture of the phone and a photo of a fake ID that had convinced the victim.
“The next day, the victim sent $150.00 for the deposit of the phone. Afterward, the victim tried to contact the accused but was unsuccessful. The matter was then reported by the victim at Tavua Police Station.”
For the vendor, a 36-year-old, it is believed that on March 23rd last year, the accused obtained $150 from a victim through bank withdrawal.
“Investigation revealed that the victim, was at home when she received a message from their department head requesting her to lend her the amount through mobile phone platform.,” police said.
“She informed her that she had insufficient amount in her phone account and was told to send money through online bank money transfer.
“The victim transferred the money and it was withdrawn on the same day in Labasa. The matter was then reported by the victim at Nabouwalu Police Station.”
