Select CARICOM Leaders were targeted by a Whatsapp scam and Prime Minister John Briceno - who is the current Chairman of CARICOM - was right in the centre of it.
We learned about this through a statement from the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley. When he returned from a recent CARICOM meeting on Sunday, he announced in a press conference that "TT was 'lucky to be identified for a not-insignificant share of some funding' from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
He said he got the info from Chairman of Caricom Briceno that, quote, "the Office of the Secretary General of the UN wanted to reach me and a couple other Caricom Heads to advise us that he had received a substantial grant from the…Foundation to be distributed among us in its ongoing poverty alleviation program."
Sounds like money from heaven - and PM Rowley called the UN Secretary General - but found that he could only communicate by WhatsApp and not a standard voice call.
He say that's when a person purporting to be the SG encouraged him to use a foreign bank to receive this grant but warned him there would be a significant processing fee. They then tried to guide him towards "making a substantial deposit in a Chinese bank" to qualify for the grant. That - along with all the other clues convinced Rowley, quote, "that this was a most brazen scam being run in the shocking manner as described."
He says he then called Briceno who, quote, "forwarded a stream of WhatsApp messages purporting to be coming from the Secretary General attempting to reinforce the confidence trick, through the involvement of this other high office." End quote.
PM Briceno has been quoted in the local media as saying that he got the link from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who - after all - was just voted Time Magazine's most influential person.
So, what's behind it all, and what's the level of exposure of Belize's and other CARICOM leaders? We asked Prime Minister Briceno at his office 90 minutes ago:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Simply what happened is that Prime Minister Mottley called me on Friday and she said you're going to get a message from the secretary general on the UN that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have said that they want to assist 3 countries that they are setting aside 15 million dollars to help - 3 of the countries that have been hit hardest by Covid and as chairman of CARICOM that they are going to contact me. I was contacted using the secretary general Guiterrez WhatsApp and the message said lets do WhatsApp, because its encrypted. I contacted the secretary general and I contacted a few other people and then it was agreed that St. Lucia, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago were the 3 countries that were going to. They ask for numbers, we provided them the numbers. It is only when they contacted the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago and then he became suspicious immediately."
"Well. I had no re-communications as to what kind of money they were going to give and as soon as he was back and forth, realizing that these people are not really identifying themselves. He became a bit suspicious and then when he messaged me and then I said you know what I did not speak to the person, we were just messaging. I immediately said I think that's a scam and what convinced him that it was a scam, when they were asking him well, for us to be able to send this money for you, you need to make a deposit in a bank in China. Those are all the red flags and that's when he said we end right here and thats it."
Reported
"Someone purported to be the secretary general?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Yes, apparently it seems they captured his WhatsApp and I think that has happened to people here in Belize."
PM Briceno added that no CARICOM leader was exposed - which we take to mean that no funds were transferred.
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