Police impersonators arrested after conning millions from victims

Police in Ndejje has arrested fraudsters alleging to be police officers calling residents and threatening to arrest them with intent to con them of their money.

The suspects who were found in possession of exercise books filled with a number of phone contacts of victims were apprehended on Thursday in an operation by the OC Ndejje ASP. Hillary Tugume.

The arrest came in as a result of a security concern by some of the residents about a small room which harbours about 12 boys.

While acting on information, police raided the house arrested and carried out a search.

One of the suspects confessed to having been part of the racket calling,threatening and extorting from innocent citizens.

One of the victims told police that she had received a number of calls from unknown people purporting to be police officers, telling her that she was being investigated in regards to a murder case. The fraudster read to her the SD reference and told her they had an arrest warrant in her name.

The worried suspect trembled, asked how she could be helped and paid a sum of 10 million Uganda shillings to be helped.

The scam call was used as a threat designed to frighten her into paying money in order to solve the allegations against her.

Another victim alleged the suspects called claiming there was an outstanding warrant for an unpaid traffic ticket and threatened immediate arrest unless the victim promptly paid a supposed fine to the provided phone number

In a report made at the police in February 2018, one male victim claimed he was called by the suspect saying his son had been arrested. The suspect then handed over the phone to a collaborator purporting to be the “arresting officer” who sought police bond money.

The three complainants told police they had been defrauded of money worth 16 million Uganda shillings in anticipation of being helped to solve their cases.

The suspects identified as Abdul Mutte, Akaya Marvin, Ashraf Sebuliba, Mabirizi Yahaya, Joseph Mutebi, Joshua Male and Sebayiga Ivan are currently detained at Ndejje Police Station and charged with obtaining money by false pretenses.

We advise the members of the public not to be pressured by threatening callers rather stop, think and check whether their story is true, hang up or do not respond in case you receive threatening phone calls asking you to pay any fee, ignore texts otherwise if you do, the fraudsters will escalate their intimidation and attempts to defraud you.

KMP