Facebook - it's the most popular social media in Belize - but increasingly, it's being used by scam artists to trick gullible persons out of their hard earned money.
Our first two stories tonight are about Facebook scams - but the first is far more sinister. It centers around a fraudster who has set up a fake profile in the name of Natural Resources Minister Cordel Hyde - to con people out of paying for land titles which of course, they never receive.
JoMarie Lanza reports on one case that has come to light and has actual screenshots from another where the Facebook imposter - tried to con someone else out of 800 dollars. Here's her story:
If you search for Cordel Hyde on Facebook, you'll find as many as six profiles, five of which are fake. And the only one he actually owns isn't in use anymore.
But 38 year old Nyria Gordon did not know that and since August of 2023 she has been conversing with a person who she thought was the Minister of Natural Resources Cordel Hyde, pursuing a land title ON THIS FAKE PROFILE.
The person behind the page told her that if she wanted to speed up the process to purchase the land she wanted she would have to make a payment of $1,000. Fast forward to 2024, and on Friday February 9th, Gordon deposited $500 as instructed to an Atlantic Bank account under the name Ada Ethel Toro - which she was directed to do by the fake profile holder.
And on Monday February 12th she made another $500 transfer to that account.
Gordon became suspicious after not hearing back from the profile holder on her land title. And so, via messenger she asked for a refund.
After several futile attempts to get back her money, she realized that the person had blocked her. She has since filed a report and no money has been transferred to her.
The fake page has been reported and reports say the minister has himself filed a complaint regarding the numerous fake profiles impersonating him.
But, it doesn't end there, up to February 12th, this fake profile was still hard at work trying to scam gullible land seekers.
In this exchange - the person posing as the minister says he's unavailable for office and, quote, "that is why I made my social media reachable for everyone."
He tells the person to send their land documents - and when she suggests doing so to his office, he says better to quote, "Send me the document on here now." And then says, "I'm waiting."
The fake profile tells the person he's checked into it and can "see it all clearly". The fraudster then later says_ "you will have to make a payment up front...it is a total of $800." The fraudster tells the person to make a payment through a bank transfer - right to the Atlantic Account of Ada Ethel Toro
In the second case we showed you with those screenshots - it's a deeper story because the con-man or woman pretending to be Cordel Hyde - was the one being conned in a sort of sting operation. We'll have more on that story later this week.
Notably, no arrests have been made.
