Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) has arrested, in Maputo city, a 54-year-old Portuguese citizen for running a con-trick which allegedly defrauded 13 Mozambicans.
According to SERNIC spokesperson, Hilário Lole, who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the man worked with two Mozambicans who are still in the run.
The man (who has not yet been named) used to charge 60,000 meticais (around 940 dollars) from each individual to secure a supposed job in Portugal.
“This individual had joined up with two Mozambican citizens who were enticing some interested citizens with offers of jobs in Portugal”, Lole said.
To this end, “he demanded money in stages, up to 60,000 meticais for the whole process, for each citizen. In Portugal, he promised jobs in the hotel, locksmith and carpentry industries.”
However, said Lole, during the course of the negotiations, some people realized that there were abnormal situations, since only passports and copies of identity cards were required.
No further steps were taken except to charge additional amounts whenever they contacted the suspects to demand satisfaction.
For his part, the Portuguese suspect denied all the accusations and blamed a Mozambican named Herminio, who supposedly contacted him looking for jobs for some individuals.
“I have a consultancy company in auditing and accounting and also in human resources. I met Herminio in Maputo Shopping and over the weekend he was harassing me. And then he sent me a man with 13 passports to see if I had a solution [jobs]”, he said.
The suspect insists that he had the possibility of getting professional internships in Portugal, where there are already nine Mozambicans who travelled there without paying him anything.
“There are possibilities, there are already nine people there for internships, these people are friends who have paid absolutely nothing”, he claimed.
SERNIC believes that there may be more victims in connection with this scam. It has contacted the National Immigration Service to ascertain the legality of the man’s presence in Mozambique and with Interpol to ascertain his criminal situation in Portugal.
SERNIC warns that this type of swindle is on the increase, and criminals have been using people of foreign nationality to convince their victims more easily.
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