Beware of scammers: Bakani

By GLORIA BAUAI
PEOPLE must be aware of where they are investing their money because there is no law under the current Central Banking Act regarding money scams, an official says.
Governor for Bank of Papua New Guinea Loi Bakani was concerned that despite awareness by the bank, scams had continued in the country.
“It’s difficult because at the moment, this particular area is not covered under the Central Banking Act so all we can do is warn people not to put money in these scams,” Bakani said.
“There are financial institutions that are licensed by us so if you want your money to be safe, keep your money with these institutions and not with this money schemes.”
Bakani said for now, people who had invested and lost their money through scams could only take the scammers to court under the criminal offences. “That’s an area we can look at when we amend the (Central Bank) act, to see what we can do to counter those kind of scams because it’s a common thing in PNG.”
Governor Bakani dismissed claims of money under these programmes parked with the Central Bank, saying that BPNG was the government’s bank and was responsible only for the government’s money.
He said anyone who had been scammed needed to immediately take the scammer to police or report to the matter to relevant authorities.